#i want long suffering big sister maddie putting up with him

[fiona-fififi]

"Okay, whatever," Maddie says, literally waving Eddie off (with good reason, too, it's her wedding Eddie, get it together).

That man is her annoying little brother's annoying best friend, and she is SO done with the both of them.

[wackybuddiemewbs]

Random Buddie Fic Snippets - no title, just (bad) vibes

Here’s to another snippet of things that ghost through my Word files. This one’s particularly headache-inducing for me personally. For one, trigger warnings galore. And then I have *checks file* 41k (!!!) words worth of non-fic noted down, but it’s really just unassembled bits and pieces of mostly dialog. Grrrrrrr. 😖

Since such a fic would take a lot more planning... which is basically the antithesis of me for all intents and purposes... I pester you with snippets like they are pestering me. Said it before and can only reiterate: I make you suffer with me. *cackles*

Basically, the story plays on the idea that Eddie and Buck grew up together due to plot convenient purposes and meet again at the fire station after years apart. Anyway, here’s to more madness mingled with angst! Cheers!

Buck slings his duffel bag over his shoulder when his phone vibrates. Sighing, he shifts his weight to take it out of his pocket and take the call. A smile creeps up his lips when he sees the picture flare up on his screen.

“Hey, what’s up, Mads?”

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know that you were right about that little bakery downtown. It’s so worth the twenty minute trip,” she nearly groans. And Buck can relate. When he found that authentic Mexican bakery on a long run through the city, he may or may not have shed a few tears of happiness. And he may or may not have bought pastry worth a hundred bucks.

Totally worth it to run all those extra miles for the carbs, though.

“How many conchas did you have?” Buck asks, chuckling softly.

“I’m pleading the fifth.”

“Did you drive back to get more?” he questions, though Buck is fairly sure what the answer is already, which comes promptly, “Which is why I might be late for work.”

Buck laughs, leaning back against his car. “They are in the top 5 of conchas I ever had, which is saying something. So yeah, I get the feeling.”

And he should really know, he’s had the best in the world and no. 2 and 3 also. Though those are not up for sale.

“So, I need a bit of distraction to keep myself from digging through the remains of the bag before I make it to the car,” she tells him.

“Sure, what do you want to hear?”

“Howie told me that you’re getting someone new on the team today. Are you excited?”

“… Oh, ugh, sure.” Buck can feel his jaw cramping at that.

“You know you just sounded more excited about me being on a sugar high thanks to Mexican pastry than you are about your new teammate arriving.”

He’d hoped to avoid that conversation before he got over with it. Because that’s how he normally rolls with it. He gets over with it.

Works with band-aids and most situations that give you discomfort.

But Maddie has maybe not the sixth but seventh sense apparently big sisters seem to inherit by birth, so it appears that not even the most amazing conchas up for sale in all of Los Angeles will spare him having that conversation now. Which is the equivalent of tearing duct tape off, but slowly.

“I’m a huge concha fan, what can I say? And sure, it’s cool. It’d be nice to have a partner on the team, like, permanently, like Chim and Hen, more like.”

Buck rolls his eyes back as far as they will into his skull. It’s a small wonder that Maddie doesn’t buy his bullshit. He was fine just dodging the topic until now, it’s what normally works best for him. But yeah, Maddie just knows how to coax it out of him, and he loves and hates her for it.

“Talk to me, Buck.”

Buck looks up to the sky. “… I guess I’m just a bit nervous.”

“You are nervous? Don’t you think it’s up to the new teammate to be a bundle of nerves?”

“That’s kind of my thing, though,” Buck argues.

He has been ever since Bobby announced that they’d get a newbie, not a probie, but someone to be on the team with them. Dutifully, Buck laughed at the comments about how Bobby seemingly hired him a babysitter to make sure he doesn’t do reckless stuff all the time.

The nervous energy settled in when he got home that day and his leg wouldn’t stop bobbing well into lying in bed, trying to sleep. He only fell asleep halfway through reading the Wikipedia list of minor planets named after people.

“Then why do you feel nervous?”

“It’s nothing.”

“You know you can tell me,” she says softly.

Buck closes his eyes. He understood by now that yes, he can. But that doesn’t mean he wants to. Most of the time, Buck wished he didn’t have to tell anyone anything ever again and simply exist in the here and now. Because the here and now is sunny and tastes of pretty damn awesome conchas.

“I know it’s stupid, but…” His voice trails off.

And maybe she can read his mind, Buck wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be the case, because Maddie goes on to say, “You know he’s not taking your place, right?”

“What? Yeah, I mean…” Buck chews on his bottom lip. Whenever Maddie starts to talk like that, he feels like he’s sitting with a therapist. And suddenly, what he wants to believe are just his antics sounds like food for the shrinks.

“This is supposed to be your partner. Someone to have your back, not stab you in the back,” Maddie points out.

“Rationally, I know all that. It’s just…” He stretches out his legs.

“It’s just what?” she asks in a gentle tone of voice.

“What if he’s better than me?”

What if they realize that he’s expendable after all? What if someone comes along who can do things better than Buck without the attitude? What if he can’t prove his worth anymore because that guy can do it just as well, maybe even better?

“Then I will be glad because that means someone capable is watching out for my baby brother,” Maddie answers, pulling Buck back to the current conversation, not the fictional ones inside his head.

“What if we end up hating each other’s guts?” Buck continues. He had to restrain himself from actually typing a list of all those questions on his phone when his mind went spiraling upon receiving the news. Because that’s what’s been going on ever since Bobby announced. And Buck knows how stupid it is, but his brain didn’t get the memo. There are so many what ifs that it’s making him dizzy thinking about them.

“Then you talk about it like actual adults. And anyway, no one can hate you to your guts. You’re amazing.”

Buck has to fight hard not to blush. “Thanks, but you’re biased because you’re my sister.”

His heart still beats a little faster every time he says those words out loud. Something that comes so light and casual these days, though it isn’t. It is closer to what it should be. Because it should be casual, natural, given.

But apparently, the world didn’t get that memo yet. Seemingly a pattern.

“And as your sister, I’m also always right.”

“Are not.”

“Are too.”

He laughs. She chuckles back.

“Listen,” Maddie continues. “Just be yourself. You’re going to figure it out. This is exciting, Buck. More people to add to your family, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks,” he croaks.

“I’ll call you during lunch time, unless you’re out on a call. And then I want all the details on the newbie.”

“Alright. Pro tip: Put the bag of pastries in the trunk of your car. Only way to keep your paws off of them while driving.”

“I may actually crawl back, but yeah, it’d require a lot more effort.”

He smiles. “Drive save.”

“Will do.”

“Alright, I’m heading in,” Buck says, pushing away from his car. “Or else I will be running late, too.”

“Love you, little brother.”

“Love you, too. Talk to you later.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Buck hangs up and stuffs his phone back into his pocket.

Maddie is right. There is nothing to be nervous about. He has a team now. No one is leaving. New people are arriving. That’s how it works. That’s normal. And he gets to pester the newbie. So he should really be excited, as Maddie said. Buck knows he should focus on that. On how great this could turn out to be. On having a partner. Someone to have his back. All the time.

He sucks in a deep breath as he comes to stand in front of the door leading inside the fire station.

“The door is not closed,” he mutters with closed eyes, grabbing the handle. Buck pushes inside. He is greeted by the familiar hum of the fire station coming to life. People are talking over coffee, some are still fastening the buttons on their shirts as they make up the stairs.

And there’s no place he’d rather be. Buck knew that the moment he first walked into the station for the first time, and that assessment hasn’t changed since.

Buck makes for the locker rooms to change, not wanting to run late like Maddie. Once changed into his uniform, Buck finds himself a little more at ease. Athena once pointed out that they wear those uniforms as a way of protecting themselves. You take them off after work and leave all the bad behind that you’ve witnessed on a call. For Buck, the other way is just as true, though.

When he puts on that uniform on, he can leave his anxious, knee-bobbing self behind and do something meaningful. Because that’s what he found here, beside the team that means so much to him. He found a purpose. A way of answering a calling that lies far back in a past he can’t and won’t remember. To save lives.

Buck looks at his reflection in the mirror, straightens out the collar, makes sure his hair sits perfectly. His glance lingers on the name tag a moment longer, brushes his fingers over the metal plate, the one thing he can’t fix or straighten out.

But that won’t make me flinch. Ever.

“Buckaroo! Time for coffee and talk! I need new material on that show Denny and you are watching and that you need to update me on, so I don’t have to watch it!”

Buck smiles as he closes the locker to see Hen standing there with two cups of coffee.

“Coming.”

But that fixes a whole lot already.

-------------------

Hen sips her coffee in silence as Bobby goes on about who is doing what for the day. She is glad that she isn’t assigned truck cleaning duty. That’s one of the best things about newbies and probies coming in. They get to do the dirty work for a bit. She had to jump those hoops, too, like everyone did, so it only seems fair.

Chim nudges her in the side, pulling her out of her musings. “Have you seen the newbie yet?”

She nudges him back a bit harder to tell him wordlessly that he is supposed to stop doing that. “If I had, don’t you think I would’ve told you by now?”

“Just saying, being late on the first day is not a good sign.”

“Can I help you with something, Han, Wilson?” Bobby calls out. “Care to share with the rest of the team?”

Buck laughs beside them, earning himself a nudge from Hen. That kid is going places sometimes, but Hen learned to love him fiercely after he stopped being a punk.

Fine, he’s still a punk sometimes, but we got to see there’s a heart of gold underneath all the punk and muscle and hair gel.

He grew on her the way he managed to grow on anyone, even the Captain who doesn’t like to admit that more than anyone around the station. He fired the boy first week in, and it was well-deserved, but he proved capable and kind.

Hen knew she was done for this humanoid golden retriever when she fussed over not having a babysitter for Denny and Buck jumped in after he’d just done a double-shift. She and Karen were still working things out and he just made the room, even though the boy deserved bed more than anyone else. Still, he took Denny to the park, finished homework with him, and got him to go to bed even though the kid is not so much a negotiator as he is a small dictator when it comes to bedtime. Karen and she found Buck passed out, snoring like a lawnmower, a book still in his lap while sitting next to Denny’s bed.

“Nothing, Cap,” Chimney answers. “Just sharing excitement about the newbie.”

“You’ll meet him shortly. He had to pick up his gear first and talk to the higher-ups another time. Once he arrives, you can pester him with questions as I know you will.”

“On it, Cap.”

Bobby rolls his eyes, but then his mind goes back to the clipboard and the rest of the chores yet to be divided among the firefighters on shift. The rest of the morning routine goes without further incident, so the three are soon walking down the stairs to their designated task of checking their stocks on medical equipment.

“Okay. That is a beautiful man,” Chimney says, suddenly stopping in his tracks.

Hen trains her eyes on the dark-haired Latino, putting on a shirt. That should be the newbie, then.

“Where’s the lie? And I like girls.”

“Eddie…,” Buck breathes beside her.

Hen whips her head around at the sound.

“Wait, you know this guy?” Chim asks, but Buck doesn’t say anything. Instead, he starts to walk towards the new guy, or almost staggers, she should rather say. The newbie only takes notice of him when his head pops out from the shirt.

“Buck?”

To Hen, it feels like the two just go in slow motion while the rest of the fire station is crazy and busy as always. As though the whole world disappeared around them.

She can’t make out whatever words may be exchanged between them before the new guy covers the last few steps between them and pulls Buck against him in a tight hug. Shock is written all over his face, but also huge relief. Though Hen honestly wished they stood the other way around, because she would like to know just what expression is flitting across her little golden retriever’s face.

“What on earth is going on here?” Chimney mutters.

“I ain’t got no clue.”

The newbie pulls away, smiling over both ears, both hands deftly resting on Buck’s arms. Even though Hen still can’t see Buck’s face, it seems that the guy is doing all the talking for a change. Then he is hugging him all over again.

“I repeat, what on earth is going on here?”

“Only one way to find out.”

Before they can overcome their paralysis, Buck starts to move, gesturing behind himself. The new guy nods with the brightest of smiles, not once letting go of Buck’s arm as they start to walk towards them.

Her confusion is multiplied by the way Buck carries himself, eyes downcast, looking nothing but nervous.

Did someone exchange the 118’s golden retriever this morning, or what’s going on here?

“... can’t believe we meet again in this place of all places,” she can hear the new guy say as they approach.

“S, same.”

Buck is stuttering. To repeat the repeat: What on earth is going on here?

“We have so much catching up to do.”

“Yeah.”

“Buckaroo?” Hen calls out, or maybe demands. She no longer cares for the details here. She needs to get down to the bottom of this. Fast.

“Oh, sorry, I just… this is Eddie.”

“Hi.”

“Hi Eddie, it is a pleasure meeting you. We will greet you good and proper in only just a moment. Hold the line,” Hen says, before turning her attention back to Buck. “Now to you, Buckaroo. Spill the beans.”

“Yeah,” Chim agrees.

But Buck is not forthcoming. Boy looks like a fish out of the water, his mouth opening and closing without any sounds coming out. This makes the sirens ring inside Hen’s head, not the ones at the station. Because their Buckaroo never stops talking, even when he should sometimes, and even when he wants to stop talking, he will keep talking. So him not finding anything to say may or may not force Mother Hen to have to look after her punk chick here.

“We grew up together,” Eddie says after a pause, still all soft smiles and maybe even softer curls, by the looks of it. Hen will worry about that later, too. “I honestly had no clue he was working at this station, let alone that he was in L.A. Color me surprised. Abuela will not believe this.”

“Abuela?”

“My grandmother. She’s the one who fostered him before…,” Eddie continues, but then stops himself when he notices the look of sheer panic on Buck’s face. “They do not know this.”

Buck shakes his head.

“Dios.”

“Wait, you were in foster care?” Chimney almost cries out.

“In Texas?” Hen adds, her mind still short-circuiting thanks to that input.

“Yeah. I was adopted by the Moores after that.”

Chimney gapes at him. “You were adopted?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait, they don’t know about that either?” Eddie asks, now almost as frantic as they are.

Welcome to the club, hon.

“Now they do,” Buck mutters.

“But Maddie isn’t adopted. I should know.” Chimney lifts his index finger.

“Right,” Hen agrees.

Eddie makes a face. “Who’s Maddie?”

“My girlfriend, Buck’s sister.”

“You have a sister?” Eddie slaps his hand against Buck’s arm, shock taking the place of confusion.

“Wait, you grew up with him and don’t know his sister?”

“It’s a long story,” Buck sighs.

“Like how you’re Texan?” Hen scoffs.

Buck holds up his hands. “Okay, guys, can we stop spiraling for a second?”

Hen opens her mouth to give him a piece of mind, but she’s abruptly cut off by their captain standing at the top of the stairs. “Buck! I could use a hand up here!”

“On my way, Cap!” Buck yells back, the amount of relief to opt out of the conversation more than imminent. “Sorry, duty calls!”

“Hey no,” Chim hisses, but Buck isn’t having it. He pats Eddie on the shoulder. “We’ll talk later, okay?”

“Okay.”

With that, he starts to jog, or rather run, up the stairs. All watch him go, before their eyes fall back on the people standing right in front of them.

Well, if that’s not awkward.

“So, ugh. Hi again,” the new guy says, smiling sheepishly. “Eddie Diaz, your newbie.”

“Hi. Hen Wilson.”

“Howard Han, but you can call me Chimney or Chim. And why I’m called that is between me and God.”

“Okay. That may be only the second most confusing thing to happen on my first day.”

“We don’t normally act like this,” Hen tries to reassure him.

Chim makes a face. “We don’t?”

Hen nudges him in the side hard enough to make Chim gasp.

“Wilson, Han, you’re supposed to get on with the stocks!” someone calls out.

“You’re not our boss!” Chim shouts back at what turns out to be that jackass Lambert from B-roll no one likes because his attitude stinks about as much as his aftershave.

“But Cap is and he told me to tell you to move it!”

“I hate that guy,” Chim grumbles.

“I think I’ll like it here,” Eddie chuckles.

“They are so young and innocent when they join,” Chim snorts.

“Welcome to the 118,” Hen says, giving the younger man’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I suppose you should go up there as well and talk to the captain.”

“Alright, I’ll see you around.”

“Most certainly.”

“That was only mildly threatening,” Chim laughs, rolling his eyes well before Hen jabs him another time.

“Good to have you here,” he adds.

“Indeed.”

“Good to be here. See you later.”

“Later,” both say in unison.

Eddie smiles at them before climbing up the stairs.

“You try to get a hold of your boo, I’ll see what info I can squeeze out of Cap or Buck, whoever I get my hands on first.”

“Aren’t we supposed to get on with…”

Hen glowers at him.

“I said nothing.”

“Less talking to me, more talking to your girlfriend.”

Chimney makes a mock salute, before walking away while fiddling with his phone. Hen let’s her gaze wander up to the gallery with a grimace. Something is not right, but she is going to figure it out. Because Hen Wilson keeps all her little chicks on track, even more so now that they got a new one to take care of.

-------------------

Eddie tosses the sponge into the water bucket. Getting some of the crappier chores for the day is something he fully expected to happen. What he didn't expect, not in a million years, was running into Buck. Eddie’s head is still reeling because of it. And for what it seems, the same is true for Buck.

Buck.

To say that he seemed shocked is an understatement. Eddie knows the way Buck expresses panic. He’s grown up making sure the kid breathed instead of keeling over when it hit him, so Eddie knows that this was not just surprise, this was fight-or-flight level panic. Eddie knows by now he was so panicked because his colleagues didn’t know about the fostering or adoption – and he could still kick himself for bringing it up unawares.

He jumped to the conclusion because Buck used to talk about it freely to anyone who asked, especially after he was adopted by the Moores. Because it was his way of signifying to the rest of the world that he’d made it from being abandoned to finding friends and family. So Eddie assumed that Buck wouldn’t act any different around his colleagues.

Far from it!

“Eddie, my friend.”

Eddie nearly jumps when Hen and Chimney materialize next to him.

Speaking of…

“Hi,” he greets them.

“How’re you liking it thus far?”

“The detergents smell not as bad as some others do,” Eddie snorts. “But I’m pretty sure that’s not what you came here to ask me about.”

“Just so that you know, you can tell us anything,” Hen says in that mild tone of voice, though Eddie is pretty sure she only says it this way not to scare him away.

“You are looking for bribing material on Buck, I take?”

“We always appreciate it, but we are more like… trying to get up to speed. Until you came to the station, we didn’t even know he’d been fostered,” Hen answers.

“Or adopted,” Chimney adds.

“In Texas.”

Eddie chews on the inside of his cheek. “Yeah, about that. So he actually found his sister?”

If seeing Buck nearly floored him, hearing about his sister was definitely not adding to Eddie’s calm.

“Yes, she’s my girlfriend. You’ll get to know her soon enough.”

There is a part in Eddie that’s very much relieved to hear that Buck found at least part of his family, but another part of him hurts at the news just as much. Because that means Buck likely learned some very uncomfortable truths about his past that won’t have added to the man’s confidence.

“Back in Texas, we knew nothing about where he came from, including whether he had siblings or not. There was an assumption, but no one could be sure.”

“How old were you by the time your grandmother fostered him?”

“I was eight years old.”

“Eight years old… Buck made it sound like he and Maddie were out of touch like, only by the time she got to know Doug.”

Eddie frowns. “Who’s Doug?”

“No one you want to know.” Chimney shakes his head.

Eddie shakes his head. All of this starts to make less and less sense. Why didn’t Buck tell them about any of this? Why didn’t he when he apparently found his sister? Why are they about as clueless as he is, even though they’ve been working side-by-side with him for how long now?

“We lost sight of each other when the Moores moved away from Texas. So they aren’t around anymore?”

Hen shrugs at that. “Let’s say we’ve never met them, never talked about them, or seen any pictures.”

“Kid arrived here with a travel bag and the will to become a firefighter,” Chimney adds.

Eddie can’t help but smile at that. “That sounds like him.”

“You sound pretty clueless actually, and not gonna lie, that is strangely reassuring,” Chimney snorts.

“I prepared for meeting many new people today. Not my best friend back from childhood.”

“Aw.” Hen clutches her hands in front of her chest.

“I just hope he’s not mad at me.” Eddie grimaces. There is something tugging at his heart, just thinking about it. A memory that goes way back in time. When he thought he’d messed it up with Buck forever and always, but he forgave quicker than Eddie could forgive himself.

“I don’t remember our Buckaroo being capable of keeping grudges for long.”

“Then that hasn’t changed at least,” Eddie sighs.

“I think you two should definitely get something to drink after work, reminiscence about the good old times. Catch up. Report back to us in the morning,” she says, her voice trailing off.

“You are aware that they are childhood friends.”

“But I can be far more intimidating.”

“I think getting something to drink and catch up is actually a good idea,” Eddie ponders. “So thanks.”

“You, I like.”

Eddie grins.

“You still missed a spot, though.”

Eddie chuckles, shaking his head. Buck made some good friends here, for what it seems. And he is more than glad for it. They can surely figure this all out.

-------------------

Waking up this morning, Buck thought his biggest worry would be to sort himself out with regards to the newbie and his standing on the team as a result. While that remains true, he just didn't imagine for one hot second it may be Eddie of all people in the entire universe.

Eddie.

When Buck saw him at the station, he didn’t know how to breathe. Even though he hadn’t seen him in years, he knew instantly, only to know that he suddenly knew nothing anymore. Buck used to think he made his peace never seeing Eddie again after they moved away, but then Eddie was hugging him and all those things Buck made sure to bury deep in the ground started to crawl up through the dirt, scratching at a way too thin surface.

And now he is sitting at a bar, nursing his alcohol free beer – because he doesn’t drink when driving, he has to get people out of cars thanks to that behavior way too often, thank you very much. He is at a bar. With Eddie. His Eddie. Because Eddie invited him to get a beer after the shift, and Buck didn’t know how to say no.

Story of my life, isn’t it?

“… I don’t even know where to begin,” Buck admits after a while of awkward silence spreading between them, wherein both men just started peeling the label off of their bottles of beer.

“Same. I mean, you got a sister.”

“Yeah, ugh, I would have told you that, but Chim is still over the moon with her, so of course he mentioned her before I could. They are cute together, but at the disgusting kind of stage,” Buck ponders.

“I’m just so happy for you that you found your family, Buck.”

He manages a feeble smile. Because Buck knows that Eddie means it, understands it perhaps better than most. Because he had to deal with it growing up, had to deal with Buck dealing it growing up.

“I didn’t really find Maddie. We just… happened to meet again. Like us two did today.”

Eddie blinks at him. “Really?”

Buck nods his head. The universe always had the strangest kind of humor when it came to him.

“She’s a dispatcher now. We talked over dispatch for a while, not knowing who we are to each other. We decided to hang out. As friends. She didn’t know people in the city after she moved there only recently, so we also went to a pub and… we started to talk.”

Déjà-vu much, huh?

“Over time, I told her some stuff about my past and, well, Maddie realized that the timing seemed oddly familiar to the brother she thought had died,” Buck continues. “DNA test confirmed it.”

“I was wondering about that,” Eddie sighs, still trying to process that input for what it seems. “I mean, I really put my foot in it, just blurting out with this.”

Buck holds up his hands. “Eddie, no. You had any reason to believe I had told them. I suppose I’ve been blowing this up out of proportions anyway, so this is really just on me.”

“It’s your choice what you want to share with people about yourself, Buck.”

Buck blinks. Sometimes, he forgets how wise Eddie used to be already at a young age. He was also a dumbass a lot of times, but when it came to talking about Buck’s feelings instead of his own, the guy always knew how to make sense of the chaos and make Buck feel like his feelings weren’t just a tedious affair best ripped off like band-aids.

Eddie always understood Buck, even when he couldn’t understand himself. And Buck wants to think that the same was true the other way around, for as long as it lasted.

“Thanks.”

Eddie smiles at him, sipping from his beer.

“Speaking of, thanks to Maddie I now know my official name,” Buck continues, doing his best to sound jovial. “Evan Buckley.”

“Buck-ley. Well, that explains how you got the name,” Eddie ponders, before tilting his head to the side with a cocked eyebrow. “So do I call you Evan from now on?”

“If you want me to call you Edmundo?”

Eddie narrows his eyes at him. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Buck sniggers. “You should know better than to tempt me.”

“Evan.”

“Edmundo.”

“This sounds all kinds of wrong,” Eddie laughs, shaking his head. “For me, you can only ever be Buck.”

“Which is convenient, because I can only be Buck.”

There was a brief moment in time when Buck considered changing his name, taking on that identity, the one intended. In the end, he dropped the idea for what he hopes to be for good. He doesn’t know who this Evan Buckley was or what he’d be now. He knows what Buck was like growing up. He knows what the guy is up to these days. And while they have their qualms, he’s mostly at peace with Buck.

Even a name tag doesn't change a thing about it.

Because he’s Buck. And thankfully, Eddie sees it the same way. So maybe he’s not entirely crazy for holding on to that, however schizophrenic it may be in the end.

“Anyway, part of the reason why I managed not to let anyone in on this is that Maddie agreed to run with not mentioning it. We just stuck to the part where we lost sight of each other and found one another again when anyone asked. And until now, no one really questioned the timeline.”

“And no one ever made the connection between Buckley and Buck?” Eddie asks.

Buck shakes his head. “Maddie’s married name is Kendall. She considered changing it back to Buckley after she broke up with her scumbag husband. But when she found out what kind of scumbags our parents are, it was out the window. So no one had reason to question the difference in names and just assumed that Maddie’s birth name was Moore, too.”

“I take that there is no good explanation as to how you ended up in Texas, then,” Eddie sighs. Buck can tell that he’s trying to sound casual, soft, but the white-knuckled grip on the beer bottle is an entirely different story.

“No, not really. As far as we understand it, our parents moved across state borders under the pretense to get treatment for me. Then they just dropped me at a fire station and drove back. They told Maddie I died.”

“Why would they do that? Why would anyone’s parents…?” Eddie shakes his head, disbelief settling in. Buck knows the feeling oh too well. When he found out, it didn’t make sense to him at all. But as more details were added, the clearer the bigger picture became, though it turned none the brighter.

Buck looks around, just to be sure none of the 118 was sent here to spy on them. Once he is sure there is really just them, Buck hunches forward in his seat.

“Well, I was a big, fat disappointment, I guess. They had me to save their oldest son, Daniel. He had juvenile leukemia. I was… I was a savior baby. Just that… ugh, I didn’t save him. My guessing is that they never wanted me, so they gave me away after Daniel died. I was just there for spare parts anyway.”

Buck suddenly feels something cold in his neck, only to realize it’s Eddie’s hand gently squeezing it. Buck tenses for a moment, then eases to the familiarity of the touch, suppressing the urge to lean into it like he used to.

“I’m so sorry. I would’ve hoped for something else to come out of this.”

Buck manages a feeble smile. “It’s fine. I got a sister now I never expected to find. That’s great. Over the moon kinda great. And now I also ran back into you, too. So I’m one lucky bastard after all.”

Eddie’s hand lingers for a while, no words spoken and yet all is said between them. And how much Buck missed that. Not having to say things for them to be understood.

Eventually, Eddie’s hand falls on his shoulder, giving it a light pat before returning to his beer. “So we’re still friends after I spilled to your colleagues?”

“I didn’t stop being your friend after you got so mad for me saying that you couldn’t bake for shit, so you covered a balloon stuck to a cardboard box in frosting and told me you’d baked a cake and I cut the thing only for it to explode in my face.”

“To this day one of my proudest achievements when it comes to pranks,” Eddie snorts, breaking out laughing at the memory.

Buck can’t help but laugh along. Many of those memories got stuffed away alongside the ones he’d buried in the ground. He had no reason to unearth them because he chose not to tell anyone. But with Eddie, those things come back to light and they shimmer like gold, even after all those years of packing on dust.

“Laugh it up all you want, I got back at you eventually.”

“Don’t remind me,” Eddie groans. “I got grounded for a month because you led my parents to believe I’d be stupid enough to have a folder for porn on the family’s computer and made a message pop up every time that the folder was overloaded and created a system error.”

“Yeah. That was a masterpiece,” Buck sniggers. “But anyway. If that didn’t cancel our friendship, I think we’re fairly good with all this here.”

“Then I’m glad. When you fled the scene, I got kind of worried.”

Buck shrugs. “You know me. I’m a whirlwind of emotions, so I thought it’d be best if I took the time to cool down.”

“That was definitely not how you went about it before,” Eddie argues.

And Buck can’t argue with that. Back in the day, Buck just let the storms rage, never minding the consequences. On the job, that’s still how he rolls, but it was also how he talked, how he presented himself. After he got to meet the Diaz family, he stopped hiding a lot of things. He screamed when he felt like screaming and he cried when he was sad. He laughed when he was happy. And sometimes he even cried because he was that happy, but he learned that this was okay. Abuela always told him this and he took it to heart.

At least for as long as I could.

“Which is why I’m working on it. But anyway! Enough of me. Tell me about you. How long have you been in L.A.? What got you here?” Buck asks. Judging by the look on Eddie’s face, his transition of topics is not nearly as smooth as he’d want it to be, but Eddie rolls with it anyway.

“I moved here only shortly, for the job,” he says. “Before that, I was working some odd jobs. Before that, Afghanistan.”

Buck winces. “Shit.”

“Yeah, that’s one way of describing it. After I came back home injured, I couldn’t do this anymore. I had to set priorities differently, and somehow… I ended up in L.A.”

“Fresh start.” Buck nods his head. There is still so much to unravel in just those few sentences. Afghanistan. Injury. Priorities. Eddie tends to hide a lot more in his words, even more so when they are scarce. But for what it seems, he will now get the time to dig deeper. Because that is what Buck knows someone has to do in order to understand someone like Eddie Diaz.

“Yeah, exactly.”

“I get that feeling,” Buck says. “Los Angeles is great for that, worked out for Maddie and me, too.”

“We’ll have to drink a lot of beers to catch up on all those years we didn’t hear from each other to wind up having a fresh start in the same city.”

“Then it’s a date.”

Eddie wants to say something, but then his phone vibrates. “Sorry about that.”

Buck holds up his hands. “It’s fine.”

Eddie takes out his phone and checks his messages. Buck can see the instant shift in the other man’s demeanor. He knows that change like the back of his hand, even with years between where they parted ways and now crossed them again. Eddie’s shutting down.

“Hey, uhm, sorry, I gotta head out. It’s urgent,” he says, grabbing his wallet, clearly embarrassed and beat-up for having to leave so suddenly.

Some things don’t change, do they?

“Hey, it’s fine, man. We, ugh, we are stuck together now anyway, right? We’ll find enough time to catch up. It’s a date, after all,” Buck assures him. “Also, you’re not paying for the beer, unless you wanna pick a fight with me. Just go.”

Eddie smiles at him wryly. “Thanks. I’ll pay next round?”

“Sounds like a plan to me. Now off you go.”

“Sorry another time. I really gotta…”

“See you at work!”

“See ya!”

Buck manages to keep up the smile until the door shuts behind Eddie. His shoulders drop and he sucks in a deep breath. He pays for the beers and nearly flies out the door.

He makes for his car and climbs in. Buck realizes only now how badly his hands are shaking. Struggling for breath, he takes out his wallet again and fishes out that one crumpled piece of the past he carries with him whenever he’s not on the job, so to be sure it doesn’t get further damage.

Buck unfolds the faded photograph with shaky hands and presses it against his mouth, breathing hard against it. The tears keep coming, no matter how hard he tries to stop them. They are happy and sad. Desperate and relieved. Everything and nothing. And all that at the same time.

Eddie is back.

Eddie is back in his life, just like that, after the years it took him to accept he’d never see him again. That he’d moved on as he should have.

How do you rip off the band-aid or duct tape for that?

Or maybe that’s just the universe telling him that some things really can’t be fixed.

Because apparently, the universe is still mocking him.

[aedelia]

Elves, Cloaks, and Watches (DannyMay2020-Lost)

Danny sniffled.  He didn’t want to cry, he was four now and big boys don’t cry.  His lip trembled as he looked out from his hiding place under the clothes rack.  He couldn’t see Mommy or Jazzy anymore.  He ducked back under the dresses as lots of big shoes walked by.  He had only wanted to pop out and scare Jazzy, but he waited and waited, and she didn’t walk by.  By the time he checked where she was, he couldn’t find her or Mommy!  He sniffed again and swiped his arm across his face. He was a big boy, but he was still scared. 

“Jazzy?”  he whispered, hoping that she would hear him and pop out of one of the other racks.  Maybe she was hiding too?  “Mommy?” he tried.  Mommy wouldn’t hide in clothes to scare him.  His tummy let out a loud growl, it was lunch time now.

A pair of shoes came to a stop right next to where Danny was hiding.  He hugged his knees and tried to be very small.  The dresses were parted and a strange grown up was kneeling in front of him.  The grownup was really old, he had lots of lines on his face and his hair was all white!  

“Are you lost little one?” the old stranger asked.  

Danny couldn’t speak to the stranger, but he was lost, so he nodded tearfully.  The stranger offered his hand to Danny to help him out of the clothes.  His hand was long and wrinkly.  

Danny forgot the ‘Don’t talk to strangers’ rule just as quickly as he had remembered it when he blurted out, “Wow!  You have a lot of watches!”  

The old man smiled and asked, “Do you like them?”

Danny scuffed his foot shyly, “They’re really cool, but I can’t tell time with hands yet.”

Now that Danny was out of his hiding place, the stranger stood back up.  Even with his back bent, he was still really tall!  Danny then noticed the cool cape his rescuer was wearing.

“Whoa!  You have a cape!” he said.

The stranger chuckled, “It’s more of a cloak, but it is pretty nice.”

The man offered Danny his hand and said, “Come little one, let’s go find your mother and sister.  I’m sure that they are worried about you.”

The man led Danny up to the customer service desk and told him, “Go ahead and tell them your name and who you’re looking for, they will help you find your family.”  The man then took off one of his many watches and placed it in Danny’s hand.  He gently closed Danny’s fingers over it and said, “You may keep this so that you know that you aren’t alone, even if you are scared or lost.”  He winked and gave the child a small push towards the help desk, “Go on, I’ll be watching.”

Danny turned back and gave the man’s leg a hug before running up to the desk.  The lady didn’t see him so he had to speak up, “Excuse me, I lost my Mommy and Jazzy and I can’t find them.”

The lady at the desk peered over the counter at Danny and smiled, “Don’t you worry, we’ll call them over the intercom so that they know where to find you.  What’s your name?”

“Danny and Mommy’s name is Maddie, she’s wearing a pink shirt.”

The attendant then pulled up the phone to call out over the speakers, Danny stood on his tiptoes so that he could watch.

“Would Maddie in the pink shirt and Jazzy please come to the customer service desk, Danny is waiting for you.” rang out through the store.

The speaker system popped as she put the phone back on its hook.

“There you go, they should be here for you any minute now.” she said with a smile.

Not even a full minute passed before Jazz came running up yelling, “Danny!”  She grabbed him up in a hug and spun around with him.  They were both laughing they were so happy to see each other again.

His mother came sprinting up next, “Danny!  I was so worried when Jazz said you weren’t with us anymore!”  She lifted both of her children up in a hug.

The help desk attendant said, “He was very grown up!  He came up to the desk all by himself and asked for help.”

Danny knew that wasn’t all the truth, “A nice man helped me!  He showed me where to go!”

“What did he look like?” Jazz asked.

“He was reeaaally tall and old.  His hair was all white and he had a lot of watches!  He had a cool cloak on and his eyes were red and his skin was really light and his ears were pointy!  Jazzy do you think he was an elf?  He had a scar over his eye, maybe he got it fighting orcs when they fought Sauron!”

“Elves aren’t real Danny. Everyone knows that.” Jazz stated and crossed her arms.  Maddie let her children back down to the floor and her eyes met the attendant’s, Orcs and Elves may not be real, but this was Amity Park, and the cults were definitely real.  “Alright kids, let’s not fight about elves right now, and Danny I’m really proud that you came and got help when you needed it.”  She took both of their little hands this time thanked the attendant for her help, “Thank you so much for helping us find Danny, we were very worried when we lost him.”

“It was my pleasure.” she replied.  

Maddie began to both Jazz and Danny towards the checkout aisles where she had left her cart of clothes and groceries.  “I’m so glad you’re alright Danny, please don’t run off like that again.”  Once she had the cart again she added, “And please try not to talk to strangers, I don’t want someone to see a cute little boy and take you.”

Danny pouted, “I’m not a little boy, I’m a big boy!”

His mother chuckled, glad that he hadn’t suffered for his brief adventure, “Alright, you’re right. You’re a big boy Sweetie.”  

Danny crossed his arms, he was a big boy!  He looked at the watch he was still holding in his hand. Nobody had asked him about it.  It had a blue face and little hands pointing to the numbers.  He turned it over and on the back were some letters.  He recognized these, ‘C’ and ‘W’.  He put the watch into his pocket, it made him feel safer and more grown up now that he had it.

He turned back to look at the store as they walked out.  A swish of purple caught his eye and he waved at the helpful elf-man that saved him when he was lost.  The stranger waved back and when Danny blinked, he was gone.  His belly growled again, even louder this time, and his little adventure was already out of mind.  He hoped they could stop for lunch on the way home, he didn’t like it when the food tried to attack him.  Jazzy was good at saving him from scary lunches.

[littlemeangreen]

Since you like my alt-Marauders (WHICH IM SO HAPPY FOR) how about challenge for headcanons of them interacting with the Smashers, as allies or foes or just a chance encounter? No need to, I just thought it might be something you'd have fun with!

@thecorteztwins k I'm suddenly in a big writing mood so!! FINALLY getting around to this I'm so sorry sksksk

For anyone who doesn't know: Thecorteztwins has an amazing au where she's collected Haven (thicc angel lady who was possessed by a demon disguised as a baby), Claudine (Miss Sinister),Madelyne (clone of Jean Grey), Pyro, Sebastian Shaw, Shinobi Shaw and sometimes Alice (a clone being tested by Claudine)!

I feel like the first few days are really testy. Everyone's got some bone to pick, the usual. But the biggest thing? The name. A brief encounter with paparazzi ends with their name and the reactions go from Pyro and Claudine scoffing at how silly it sounds and what a rip off it is (Pyro being a writer?? U KNOW he wouldn't stand for Alt Marauders) to Shaw sighing about the fact that he's been stuck on a team with a cliche super nickname.

Then there's personal names because once again, Pryo and Shinobi both agree that everyone needs a name to reapply make them unique! Hardly anyone goes for it, ranging from Haven's soft "no thank you" to Shaw punting Pyro into a wall. Madelyne is slightly soft for Pyro's RPG themed alias ideas for her and less than impressed for Shinobi's idea of "Mad Milf".

Alice....I'm definitely thinking she gets nicknamed "White Rabbit" or "Wonderland" because; 1) no one can leave her out of getting a name. 2) Pyro 100% would give a cheesy media related name and 3) I like the very small connections of white rabbit to the white and red queens in Alice in Wonderland (and 4) rabbits always get experimented on :).

Gamma Gals having amazing duos with the ladies of the Marauders? Absolutely!!

Jen and Haven, being an amazing duo and I feel like they'd be the two who would have that issue where they're the only ones who can save the day and end up learning a lot from each other? Haven is probably thanking her stars that she finally gets to meet a hero who believes in her kindness just as much as she does (S H A W).

Just....Haven being able to meet an even bigger woman and trading stories and being GalPals(TM). Its a really interesting concept to me that Haven is someone who was deliberately used to destroy and Jen is someone who's entire identity is formed around smashing and destruction. It's probably rather cathartic to be working with someone who purely doesn't want to resort to violence immediately and who has been used (Haven by her demon and Jen by different people).

But also learning something from each other? Haven being able to see that sometimes you do need to fight for what you love and Haven proves to Jen that even after all this time, it isn't the muscle or power that can save everything, it's her and her drive and will alone. Catch Red and Shaw scoffing about it.

Speaking of, those two could either REALLY clash or really get along, no imbetweens. Have we found another old man for Shaw to wrestle with, Roman style??? (Ngl that would be hot in a sick way)

Skaar and Shinobi? Both long haired, beautiful, sons of big figures, grew up in abusive environments,,,,its a duo. Just put Shinobi into a mini team with Skaar and Daken and we have the "Black haired brood squad"

Rick and Pyro working together to have a joint production??? FIrebomb productions baby!! My podcast ideas? Absolutely would happen when you combine these two and its hell. Aka; Rick and Pyro gossip on their podcast and give advice to starting heroes as immortals and smack talk. But also outside of that I imagine they can get along a lot in the "had a hard time accepting stuff" and "we were heroes who often did a lot for others and got disregarded and hurt for it".

Pyro: Hey if I set you on fire can you become a flaming bowling ball

Rick: well let's fine out!!

Red and Shaw....there's a lot there. Both are old men who have been pressed on in their lives and affected by masculine presences in their lives...both are regarded as awful shitbags but they're both MUCH more complex and driven by a need for power and stability...lots of thoughts here.

Shaw and Red are one team you do NOT wanna mess with because two old men who are perfectly willing to do what's needed? Red can respect a man willing to get his hands dirty with clear means and Shaw can probably like a guy who has the drive to do what he believes is the better good. Also big hulk man who can give you endless power.

But also differences in them because Shaw abused and continues to abuse Shinobi while Red neglected and most likely emotionally abused Betty but it seemingly trying to make a difference in it now that she's come back? I feel like these two probably have a SUPER in depth conversation when forced to or alone and then never speak about it again.

Spending of Betty! Her and Madelyne?? What a DUO they're litreally a great mix because Maddie is a clone of Jean, Betty was assumed to be a clone at first and often has to suffer being the "domintrix" she hulk. Both have serious issues with their mental health and identities as well as dealing with their lives being ruled or devoted to men who ruin them. Both want freedom and have such passion! I just....so much to say about these two and the similarities. They're both red.

But yeah Phoenix and Harpy?? Skksks Maddie voice: I'm FIRE HARPY nOW

Am I still yelling for her hero name to be Griffin because of how mystical they are and being a bird and lion??? Yeah.

Also sad thoughts but,,,gals talking about their lost kids (Maddie with Nate and Betty suffered a miscarriage induced from stress), the stress of their lovers and who they've lost to (Jean, Emma, Caiera, Jarella,,,) and being manipulated by men for their power (Maddie by Sinister into Goblyn queen and Betty by Leader into Red She-hulk, Harpy, both died).

Anyway point is I can fully see them two just CLICKING or fighting a lot at first until someone points out just how similar they are. Then? Maddie and Betty out here being the brand new Thelma and Louise. Red and Black styles, willing to use force but protect the innocent, both take Alice and this cute kid that Betty absolutely mother henned in her run and,,,two moms and their talented daughters pls step out the way sir.

Tbh I don't think I have much for Samuel apart form him having a small crush on Claudine (and like,,,,not in That Sense, but Samuel does have a big history of falling for smart women or just...OP women). And then a series of gags where Haven wants to know him because he's like Shaw but also incredibly different in thinking and everytime she walks into the room,,,,Samuel is doing some horrific experiment and she just NOPES OUT. Shaw wants to make use of this but it goes horribly wrong oh God why did he try.

Lyra! I just....feel like there could be a lot for her and Claudine and Alice. Lyra was genetically engineered to be used in a war and was bullied relentlessly for being "half man" which...is rather transphobic and sexist but that's her storyline and it's too deeply embedded for me to headcanon over it so...sighs.

But yeah!!! Lyra taking Alice and giving her a night of being able to just....be whoever that night, not being pressured to have an identity of the sorts from anyone and just being able to fight people with a giant green woman. Probably has a lot of deep talks later that night with Lyra, sitting over a building and eating ice cream because it was one of the first things Bruce shared with her and a first realisation that Lyra could be more than someone's daughter.

100% would picture this with Carmilla (Lyra's sister and...also messy kinda clone) or Laura Kinney hopping along and!! Clone weapon woman team!! I could GET INTO this!!! Just...pls marvel give me a team of women overcoming abuse and forming identities among each other and cool women,,,,

But also Lyra admittedly would respect Claudine for her skills and her...tenacity? Yeah, that. She has strength and guts and Lyra probably actually tells her that she'd rather get experimented on by Miss Sinister than some pig of a man and Claudine just "thhhanks?"

Hulk,,,,funny enough I don't think I have many ideas for him yet? Probably gets into a fair few fights with Shaw and Haven over different stuff, Maddie has a bome to pick for Betty,,,I am,,,blank.

I feel like a lot of things for him would be Haven trying to break through into him, maybe each of the Marauders dealing with different parts of the system? I can imagine Shinobi and Pyro don't have a high opinion of the oversized dad until Bruce turns super ashen pale and immediately Joe starts yelling for some whisky and GIRLS....and a fella or two for matchstick and ghost baby here.

Maddie thinking that he's another Scott and then finding out that Hulk's thing is more complicated than Scott simply looking for Jean again. Also Maddie demands that she will forcefully adopt Hulk's kids and these two bonding over abusive dads???

But uh,,,that's about it!! Hope you liked it!!! I probably could easily delve into more thoughts if there's anything specific for me to set my mind on.

[goingphlash]

Swap au

Ok so

Like

Imagine

Barry and Danny switch roles

I mean

Barry Allen - The Impossible

ok, I know the name is lame but Barry was like ‘I spend all my life searching for the impossible, but I never thought I’d become The Impossible.’

anyway, he went to Amity Park and check out the ghost hunting family, the Fentons

Barry instantly loves them and Jack and Maddie want to adopt him SO BAD

they show him the Portal (still unfunctional)

something happens and the Fentons have to leave but Barry can stay (wearing a trademark jumpsuit for aestetic safety)

tHeRe WaS A gReAt bIG FlAsh EvErYtHiNg JuSt ChAnGeD

(his MoLeCuLeS got all rearanged)

and then he died became half ghost

he would still be a hero (duh)

he takes a job as the local CIA so he can protect the town and lives with Jack snd Maddie

Sam and Tucker saw him transform at dome point and were like O.O

same thing with Jazz, which becomes a younger sister-like figure for Barry

of course they want to help him (to increase Barry’s anxiety levels)

and they are surprisingly helpfull

I feel like Barry would have way less of a crisis when he got hos powers. If anything, he’d be as happy as he ever was

thought ghost powers are harder to control but he’d manage

I also see him as more dedicated to ghost hunting than Danny ever was. He’d do as much research as he could and even work at ghost hunting devices

when ghosts are public knowledge, I feel like he’d become a specialist slong with thr Fentons

but he wouldn’t be as agressive towards ghost as Danny because he didn’t grow up with the same prejudices. Besides, he’s more open-minded and would make less enemies

though, Danny, despite being petty, is more willing to forgive than Barry so idk

Valerie might still become the Red Huntress, though Barry would make a bigger effort to change her mind. He understands where she’s coming from and he wouldn’t want to hurt a teenager

Vlad might want Barry to be more of an apprentice than a son. That dynamic wouldn’t cange much

Also, it might have taken him longer to figure out Spectra was a ghost, or that there was a ghost in Casper High

but with almost no casualties, his mental health will not suffer at all

I feel like a Barry would be mole willing to tell otger people his idenity, including the Fentons

Danny Fenton - Danny Fulltilt

yes that’s his hero name (not Cisco approved)

so, maybe the whole Fenton family goes to Central City to see the particle accelerator beliving it might open a gateway to the Ghost Zone or something

but Jack and Maddie get arrested for reckless driving or some sort of harrasment, eventually getting off with a warning

while they’re at the police station, Danny wonders off to Barry’s lab just when the accelerator explodes

and he just happens to be in the exact spot when the lighting strikes

cue to a nine month long coma

luckly, STAR labs is willing to take him in to monitor his condition with his parents’ agreement

meanwhile, Wellsobard facepalms SO HARD cuz godamnit I got the wrong kid

like, he messed up the timeline and now this teenager replaced the Flash which isn’t even named Flash anymore

the future is so diffrent now it’s a wonder he’s still there

anyway, after Danny wakes up, I doubt he’ll go out wandering in another city. Caitlin will definetly run more tests on him, eventually revealing his powers

speaking of Caitlin and Cisco, in this au they might be even more guilt-ridden because this is a kid their work put in a coma for almost an year

the STAR team will also keep Danny under observation and tutor him, with regular visits from his family

Danny won’t have any existential crisi over his powers because, like, these scientists guys explained what they are and how they work, he’s still human and they’re actually pretty neat

but Danny is still Danny and will still try to stop all the metas wreking havoc around the city

Cisco and Caitlin are like ABSOLUTELY NOT IT’S TOO DANGEROUS FOR A KID WE ALREADY PUT YOU IN DANGER AS MUCH AS WE DID AND—were’d he go?

eventually, they do reluctanyly help Danny out so he won’t get himself killed, but Eobard is passively agressive more supportive

speaking of which, he would be harsher and more dissapointed of Danny because, unlike his Flash, the real Flash, he outsmarts his enemies instead of getting faster (way to add up to Danny’s insecurities)

Danny get beaten meets the Reverse Flash as Eowells attempt to make the kid open his eyes and realise he needs to get faster

Danny wouldn’t tell others but I really want all the other people to find out

Joe, Iris, Eddie and Singh strongly disagree to using a kid as a weapon

Hartley Rathaway would be like ‘Dios mios, Wells. I knew you were a sadist but using a kid into doing your bidding..’ and would try (and succed) into making Danny suspicious of Wells

most criminals would be like wtf is that a kid?

some wouldn’t go easy on him but others (coughSnartcough) would

also I really want the Rogues to team up proprely and kinda adopt Danny

LISTEN DANNY BEING FRENEMIES WITH VILLAINS THE ROGUES IS MY JAM

in the end, Eobard is erased from existence when Iris marries Eddie (who doesn’t die)

Aaaaand that’s all I thought on the spot.

I you have any more ideas, feel free to add.

If you want to write a fic, please go ahead, just let me know so I can read it.

My point os, these two would be way happier if they switched places.

[bountyofbeads]

‘So much living to do’: stories of UK's latest named coronavirus victims

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/not-ready-to-go-tributes-paid-to-uk-first-named-victims-of-coronavirus?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Post_to_Tumblr

Though these deaths didn't occur in the United States, it's important to remember our brothers and sisters across the pond! They represent every walk of life, age, race and creed. Covid-19 does not recognize borders, religion, race, occupation or age.

SO MUCH LIVING TO DO’: STORIES OF UK's LATEST NAMED CORONAVIRUS VICTIMS.... Personal details have emerged of more than 50 people who have died in the Covid-19 pandemic

By Matthew Weaver, Helen Pidd and  Simon Murphy | Published:12:19 Fri April 3, 2020 | The Guardian | Posted April 05, 2020 |

The oldest is 108, the youngest only 13. These are the faces of some of the country’s coronavirus victims, among them doctors, councillors, a D-day veteran, a diplomat, a comedian and an academic.

By 4pm on Thursday 2 April, 3,605 people admitted to hospital in the UK had died after contracting Covid-19. Many were elderly and had underlying health conditions. Some did not.

In several cases, family members and medical professionals have been keen to emphasise that victims had their lives cut short. Even if they were suffering underlying health conditions, they had been expected to live for many years, they said.

Of the deaths so far in the UK and those connected to the country, details have emerged in more than 50 cases. Here are their stories.

****

Lord Gordon of Strathblane, 83

James “Jimmy” Gordon was formerly political editor of STV and founded Radio Clyde. He is understood to have died of Covid-19 at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on Tuesday 31 March.

Outside the media, Gordon was a member of the Scottish Development Agency and chaired the Scottish Tourist Board – later VisitScotland – and was made a life peer by Labour in 1997. A statement from his family honoured “his generosity, his kindness and his enthusiasm for life”, adding that being “Papa” to his four grandchildren was the role that had brought him most pleasure. The former first minister Jack McConnell said Gordon had had “an outstanding career in business and public service” and had “transformed broadcasting”. The comedian and radio host Andy Cameron, who worked at Clyde for a number of years, said: “Another good guy gone. Jimmy Gordon, Lord Gordon Of Strathblane has passed on. What an absolute gentleman. RIP Jimmy.” He leaves behind his wife Anne, three children and four grandchildren.

****

Aimee O’Rourke, 38

O’Rourke was an NHS nurse and mother of three girls, Megan, Mollie and Maddie. She died on 2 April at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent – the hospital where she worked. She studied at Canterbury Christ Church University before joining the NHS in 2017. She started showing symptoms of the coronavirus about two weeks ago before her condition deteriorated and she was taken into intensive care at the QEQM and put on a ventilator.

Her daughter, Megan Murphy, wrote on Facebook that it had always been “us 4 against the world!”, and said she and her sisters would now look after each other. “Look at all the lives you looked after and all the families you comforted when patients passed away … you are an angel and you will wear your NHS crown forever more because you earned that crown the very first day you started,” she wrote. Now a family friend has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for O’Rourke’s family.

A colleague, Lucy Page, wrote: “Aimee O’Rourke taught me to fight for what I believe in and gave me courage so many times to do it.” Another colleague, Soraya Zanders, said:“Aimee cared for many patients in her time as a nurse. She brought warmth and comfort to many.” On the evening of the day she died family and friends lit candles and clapped in her honour during the weekly Clap for Carers.

****

Areema Nasreen, 36

Nasreen was an NHS nurse who had worked for 16 years at Walsall Manor hospital in the West Midlands, where she died on 3 April after contracting the coronavirus. Nasreen, who had three children and was from Walsall, developed symptoms on 13 March, including aches, a high temperature and then a cough. Her family said she had no underlying health issues. Her sister Kazeema Nasreen, 22, a healthcare assistant at the same hospital, said Nasreen was “an amazing nurse” and urged others to take the virus seriously. In a tribute posted on Facebook, her friend Rubi Aktar said: “She was the most loveliest, genuine person you could ever meet, she went above and beyond for everyone she met. I’m so grateful that I had the honour to call her my best friend, she saw me at my best and my worst and accepted my every flaw. I am so broken that words can’t explain.”

A relative told Birmingham Live: “The immediate family are devastated. Everyone is in shock this morning. She was always so full of life. She was devoted to her job as a nurse, she absolutely loved it. She passed away doing what she loved. I’m really sad for the rest of the family, she was a fantastic person.”

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Danny Sharma, 38

Sharma was an avid fan of Liverpool Football Club and devoted much of his time to amateur football. The 38-year-old was considered to be high-risk because of his diabetes and other health conditions, and he died on 26 March after battling with coronavirus in intensive care at Hammersmith hospital in London. On 24 March, Sharma posted a picture of himself making the thumbs-up sign, and wrote: “Day Four Update. Looks nice out from the window wish I was participating in the Vitamin D. Finding hard to breathe, still fighting.”

The 38-year-old attended St Paul’s College in Sunbury-on-Thames before studying computer applications at Kingston University. His brother Vinny said he wanted Sharma’s death to make people take the threat of the coronavirus seriously. “He was a fantastic guy with a big heart, and he is someone who we are going to miss a great deal. Hopefully he will find some peace,” he said. Luke Thompson called his friend the “most selfless individual I ever met.” Traditionally the Sharma family, who are of Indian heritage, would hold an open house for 12 days after a death to enable people to pay their respects – but both Sharma’s brother and mother, Parveen, had to self-isolate because of their close contact with the 38-year-old.

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Danny Cairns, 68

Cairns was one of the first Scots to die after contracting the coronavirus to be named publicly. He had tried to self isolate at his home in Greenock in Renfrewshire but after a few days became so ill he was transferred to hospital, where he died on 26 March. His brother Hugh, who lives in the United States, said the experience was a “nightmare” for the family. “He wasn’t just my brother, he was my best friend,” he said. “From the time of going into hospital within three days he was dead. His last words to me were, ‘I’m on my way out mate’.”

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Sheila French, 80

French from Broughty Ferry, a suburb of Dundee, died after six days in Ninewells hospital intensive care on 27 March. She had been admitted after becoming ill on a family holiday in Lanzarote to celebrate her 80th birthday. Her family spoke of the pain of not being able to visit her in hospital, but her son Colin said dedicated NHS staff were determined to ensure her “comfort and dignity right to the end”. Originally from Glasgow, she married Eric French in 1962. The couple were well-known figures in the local community and shared a lifelong love of tennis.

The 80-year-old sang in the Barnhill St Margaret’s parish church choir for more than four decades. Her son said she was “interested in so many things”, including music, singing and reciting poetry. “She was also always surrounded by wool for knitting and crochet,” he told the Dundee Courier. “Her main thing in recent years was crocheting blankets to raise money for charities including Chas, and she also collected for Save The Children.”

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Dr Habib Zaidi, 76

Family GP Dr Zaidi is thought to be the first doctor in the UK to have been killed by the coronavirus. The 76-year-old, from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, died on 25 March in intensive care just 24 hours after being taken ill. He and his wife, Dr Talat Zaidi, 70, were both managing partners of Eastwood group practice and had served three generations of families in the area for nearly 50 years. The couple’s four children all work in the medical profession. Daughter Dr Sarah Zaidi, also a GP, said his death was “reflective of his sacrifice. He had a vocational attitude to service.” She added: “We can’t mourn in the normal way. We can’t have a normal funeral. He left a gaping hole in our hearts, but a loss that is also felt within the community that he devoted almost his entire life to. We are praying for the safety of everyone right now.”

Dr Jose Garcia-Lobera, GP chair at NHS Southend clinical commissioning group, said Zaidi had left behind an “incredible legacy”. He said: “[He] was a “hugely respected, selfless man who dedicated his life to helping others. Dr Zaidi will always be remembered for his significant contribution to local health services through his long career as a GP.”

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Mark Barnett, late 60s

Barnett was the headteacher at Westfield in Acomb, one of York’s biggest primary schools, for more than 17 years when he stepped down in 2008 aged 55 to work for the City of York council as a consultant headteacher. His family confirmed that he was taken into York hospital with breathing difficulties and died of Covid-19 on 1 April. Praised as a deeply committed teacher, he was a recipient of the Teacher Of The Year title at the Community Pride Awards.

Cllr Andrew Waller, a school governor at Westfield who knew Barnett well, said: “He was an inspirational headteacher and a legend in the community. Everyone knew Mark and he had a huge amount of respect.” Singer and former teacher Ian Donaghy said: “Mark was all about the children and not himself. You see a lot of career teachers out there, but Mark wasn’t one of them. The city has lost a big, big influence on children. His big thing was happy kids learn, it’s not about jumping through hoops or league tables. We could do with a few more like Mark.”

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Eddie Large, 78

Large, best known as one half of the comedy duo Little and Large, died after contracting the coronavirus in hospital where he was being treated for heart failure, his son said.

The Glaswegian comedian, whose real name was Edward McGinnis, found fame alongside Syd Little in the 1970s and 80s, when their TV performances attracted millions of viewers.

His son, Ryan McGinnis, broke the news in a Facebook post on 2 April, explaining that his father had caught Covid-19 while in hospital. He wrote: “It is with great sadness that Mum and I need to announce that my dad passed away in the early hours of this morning. He had been suffering with heart failure and unfortunately, whilst in hospital, contracted the coronavirus, which his heart was sadly not strong enough to fight. Dad had fought bravely for so long. Due to this horrible disease we had been unable to visit him at the hospital, but all of the family and close friends spoke to him every day.

“We will miss him terribly and we are so proud of everything he achieved in his career with Syd and know that he was much loved by the millions that watched them each week.”

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Caroline Saunby, 48

Saunby, a mother of two young boys, had no known underlying health conditions and started exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms on Thursday 26 March. By Sunday, she had died.

She collapsed at her home in New Marske, North Yorkshire, where she had begun to struggle for breath after initially having a sore throat, which she thought was tonsillitis. An air ambulance was dispatched and Saunby was put on a ventilator at home before being taken to James Cook University hospital in Middlesbrough, where she died the same day. She leaves behind her husband, Vic, and six-year-old twins, Joseph and Elliot.

Her twin sister, Sarah Jarvis, described her “unbearable heartbreak” as she pleaded with people to take the coronavirus seriously. She told the Northern Echo: “Caroline took every precaution under the sun. She was practising social distancing, she was washing her hands, took hers and everyone’s safety seriously, was healthy, yet she was taken from us in only four days. This virus does not discriminate.”

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Paul Ramsden, 80

It was only when Ramsden’s wife, Jacky, struggled to wake him that it dawned on her something was seriously wrong. Paul was fit for his age and had no known underlying health conditions.

He fell ill soon after the couple returned from the Canary island of La Gomera. Jacky said Ramsden’s only obvious symptom was tiredness, but when she tried to rouse him from his sleep on 22 March, the penny dropped. He died five days later.

Jacky, from Lytham near Blackpool in Lancashire, told the Blackpool Gazette: “It’s very clear that while the vulnerable are susceptible to this virus, it also strikes down fit and healthy people. I wish people to take the government guidelines seriously and to abide by them so we can avoid further heartbreak. I feel lucky to have enjoyed 40 years of love and adventure with Paul, but I am saddened that our marriage has been cut short in this way.”

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Linda Tuppen, 66

A former nursery nurse and teacher, Tuppen died from suspected coronavirus after caring for her son, who is also thought to have caught the disease. She was found lifeless by her son, Rob, on 28 March, a day after she had refused to speak to NHS’s 111 service when she fell ill, deciding to sleep instead.

Tuppen – who suffered from asthma – had been looking after Rob after he developed Covid-19 symptoms following his return from Krakow, Poland, earlier last month, but then began to feel unwell herself.

Her other son, 23-year-old James, was admitted to hospital a day later with coronavirus symptoms. In an interview with MEN, Rob recalled the moment he found his mother at her home in Bolton, Greater Manchester. “I was in a panic, she was just lay there, and I shouted ‘Mum, mum,’ but she didn’t answer,” the 28-year-old software engineer said. “I was doing chest compressions until the ambulance came. I was still in the room when he came over and said she was gone. It’s devastating. We lost our father in 2008, so we’re pretty much on our own now.

“She was a kind, loving lady who adored me and James and would have done anything for us. She always used to say that we were her lives. She would do anything for anyone.”

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Thomas Harvey, 57

The NHS healthcare assistant caught coronavirus and died after treating patients with only gloves for protection, according to his family.

It is claimed Harvey fell ill after helping a patient who later tested positive for Covid-19 and eventually died on 29 March. He had been signed off work more than two weeks earlier when he developed symptoms including a cough, shortness of breath and body aches.

His family said that if he had had the correct personal protective equipment, he might still be alive. Goodmayes hospital in east London claims there were “no symptomatic patients on the ward”. But a former colleague told the BBC that Harvey contracted the virus after treating a patient who later tested positive.

Harvey’s daughter, 19-year-old Tamira, told the BBC: “It’s so sad. I feel like he was let down in so many ways. It’s an absolute tragedy and he didn’t deserve to lose his life in the way he did. If he had just had the right equipment, we wouldn’t be in this predicament and it wouldn’t have escalated in the way it did.”

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Peter Sinclair, 73

Sinclair was a professor of economics and a former tutor to David Cameron. He taught the future prime minister during his time at Oxford before joining the University of Birmingham in 1994. He later became director of the Bank of England’s Centre for Central Banking Studies. Cameron described him as “one of the cleverest people I ever met” and said he had inspired “generations of students”. He added: “It was a complete privilege to know him.” Sinclair died in intensive care on 31 March after testing positive for coronavirus.

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Alfa Saadu, 68

Saadu was a distinguished former medical director of Princess Alexandra hospital NHS trust in Harlow, Essex. He grew up in Nigeria and travelled to the UK to train as a doctor at University College London. He retired in 2016 after a 40-year career in the NHS. He was volunteering at his local hospital in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, one of the counties worst hit by coronavirus, when he became infected. He died after a two-week battle with the disease, according to his son Dani. Dani said: “My dad was a living legend, worked for the NHS for nearly 40 years, saving people’s lives here and in Africa. Up until he got sick he was still working part-time saving people.”

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George Mason, 71

Mason and his twin brother, Malcolm, had been cutting hair in the same barber shop in Gosport, Hampshire, since they trained together as teenagers. In a statement, the Mason’s Barber Shop said he “always brought laughter and happiness and it will be so hard not working alongside him any more”. Speaking to Solent News, Malcolm said: “George was good fun – we had our moments like all brothers do, but got along brilliantly. He was a real family man and cared deeply about those around him.” As he began suffering from the virus, George told his brother he “wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy”. He was placed on a ventilator last weekend and never recovered. He is survived by his wife, Bobbie, his children Joanna and Natalie and grandchildren Hannah and Ben.

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Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13

The rare death of someone so young from coronavirus has prompted widespread shock and concern. Ismail, who had no underlying health conditions, died on 30 March at King’s College hospital, London, after testing positive for Covid-19. Ismail, who had six siblings, lived in Brixton, south London. His family said they were “beyond devastated”. In a later statement they said: “Ismail was a loving son, brother, nephew to our family and a friend to many people who knew him. His smile was heartwarming and he was always gentle and kind.”

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Luca Di Nicola, 19

Di Nicola was a chef from Nereto, near the Adriatic coast of Italy, who was living with his mother and her partner in Enfield, north London. He died on 24 March in North Middlesex hospital. His death was announced on the same day as Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab’s. A postmortem revealed that Luca had Covid-19. His aunt Giada told La Repubblica that a GP had prescribed him paracetamol for a cough and fever. She said the doctor had told him “he was young, strong and [had] nothing to worry about”.

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Harold Pearsall, 97

Pearsall was a hero of the D-day landings who was awarded the Légion d’honneur for his part in the allied assault on Caen in 1944. He landed on Juno Beach along with the Royal Artillery. “We never fired a round. When that first shell came in, I could have crawled down a worm hole,” he said last year at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-day. His unit went on to suffer heavy losses as it was attacked with phosphorous bombs and grenades, he said of the Caen operation. He died in Birmingham’s Good Hope hospital on 27 March after testing positive for Covid-19. Pearsall had two sons and had been an active member of D-day veterans’ groups. “He was very proud and always clean, smart and tidy,” said Peter Lloyd, secretary of the 1944 Alliance Normandy-Market Garden veterans’ association.

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Andrew Jack, 76

Jack was a dialect coach and actor who appeared in three Star Wars films. He died in hospital in Surrey on 31 March. His wife, Gabrielle Rogers, also a dialect coach, tweeted: “We lost a man today. Andrew Jack was diagnosed with coronavirus two days ago. He was in no pain, and he slipped away peacefully knowing that his family were all ‘with’ him.” Jack lived on one of the oldest working houseboats on the Thames. According to his agent, Jill McCullough, he was fiercely independent but also madly in love with his wife. He appeared in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi as General Ematt, as well as Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. He had been working as dialect coach on a new Batman film. Sam Neill was among many actors to pay tribute. He said Jack was a “lovely man” and “joy to work with”.

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Maria Lawrence, 48

Lawrence ran a business selling gift bags in Derby. According to her son, Dan Clark, she was also a “community champion” in the city and founded a Secret Santa scheme which she ran for free. Speaking to the Derby Telegraph, he said: “She was like an angel and very well regarded in the community. She was selfless too. Nothing was done for herself. She ran all these things out of charity.” Lawrence was unaware she had any health problem until she was diagnosed with coronavirus. Further tests revealed she also had vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, worsened by Covid-19. She died at Royal Derby hospital on 20 March.

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Frank Rust, 81

Rust was a Labour councillor for Rushmoor borough council for 28 years, and was due to serve a second stint as mayor next year. A passionate Spurs fan, he was a retired NHS manager and had also held senior posts in education. The former Labour cabinet minister Hazel Blears was among those sending tributes, describing him as a “lovely man”. His son Karl wrote: “Sorry dad you were added to the pandemic stats today but you were not a victim or casualty in these dark days. You lived life to the full never stopping learning new things, keeping active, helping people and the community you represented. You were a good dad. I am pleased you had enough time to enjoy being a grandad to Archie.” Rust died on 30 March at Frimley Park hospital, Camberley, Surrey.

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Pat Midgley, 82

Midgley was a Labour councillor in Sheffield for 33 years, and was described by her family as a “true woman of steel”. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, was among many figures in the Labour party to praise her years of service. In a message to her son Neil, McDonnell said: “The flood of tributes to your mum shows just how loved she was and how respected for her dedication to her community to the end.” Julie Dore, the leader of Sheffield city council, said: “I am heartbroken. This makes coronavirus all the more real.” Midgley was admitted to Sheffield general hospital on 24 March and was confirmed positive with Covid-19 a day later. She died on 29 March. She is survived by her husband of 60 years, three children and five grandchildren.

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Frank Hammond, 83

Hammond died in Stepping Hill hospital in Stockport on 26 March. He tested positive for coronavirus despite having no cough and only a mild temperature. His daughter, Trisha Conroy, paid tribute to a “lovely, funny man who always wanted to make people laugh”. He enjoyed art and making scraperboard images and loved walking in the nearby Peak District. A photography enthusiast who worked in a Jessops camera shop for many years, Frank had suffered from chronic lung disease and had reduced mobility but was otherwise in good health before he fell ill, Trisha said: “He used a walking frame in the house and a mobility scooter when he was out after he lost a lot of the strength in his legs but was otherwise in decent shape.” He is survived by his wife, Brenda, daughters Trisha and Claire, and four grandchildren.

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Christopher Vallely, 79

Vallely died in Belfast’s Mater hospital just hours after his wife, Isobel, passed away in the same hospital room. Earlier this year, he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He was admitted to hospital and placed in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19. Vallely, who was known as Arty, retired to his native Belfast in 2003 after working for decades in England. He lived near the Falls Road in west Belfast. He died on 29 March.

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Isobel Vallely, 77

Vallely died on 28 March, the day after the couple’s 53rd wedding anniversary. She had had a stroke last year, and was admitted to hospital on 26 March after testing positive for coronavirus. Her daughter Fiona said both Isobel and Christopher were “amazing parents”. She added: “They were fantastic people who did not deserve to go this way.”

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Amged El-Hawrani, 55

A respected ear, nose and throat consultant who worked at Queen’s hospital Burton in Derbyshire, El-Hawrani was the first confirmed hospital frontline worker to die in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus. His death prompted tributes from ministers and senior health leaders. In a statement, his family said: “His greatest passions were his family and his profession, and he dedicated his life to both. He was the rock of our family, incredibly strong, compassionate, caring and giving. He always put everyone else before himself.” He died on 28 March at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

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Hilda Churchill, 108

Believed to be oldest coronavirus victim in the UK, Churchill was a survivor of the 1918 Spanish flu. She died in a Salford care home on 28 March, hours after testing positive for Covid-19 and just eight days before what would have been her 109th birthday. Before she died, she had been reminiscing about the Spanish flu, according to her grandson Anthony Churchill. She and most of her family in their home in Crewe had become infected, including her father, who collapsed in the street with the flu, she recalled. They all survived apart from her 12-month-old baby sister. “Grandma said she remembered a small box being put in a carriage,” her grandson said. “She was saying how amazing it is that something you can’t see can be so devastating.” Hilda was a seamstress who moved to Salford during the depression to find work. She was known for her cooking skills, particularly her gravy. She had four children, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.

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Adil El Tayar, 63

Tayar was the first working NHS surgeon known to have died from Covid-19 in the UK. He had been volunteering in A&E departments in the Midlands to help the NHS cope with the virus. “He wanted to be deployed where he would be most useful in the crisis,” said his cousin, the broadcaster Zeinab Badawi. “It had taken just 12 days for Adil to go from a seemingly fit and capable doctor working in a busy hospital to lying in a hospital morgue.” His former colleague Abbas Ghaznafar, a renal transplant surgeon at St George’s hospital in Tooting, described Tayar as a “noble human being” who was a “hardworking, dedicated surgeon”. He died on 25 March at West Middlesex University hospital, London.

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Pooja Sharma, 33

Sharma was a hospital pharmacist who died from the virus a day after it claimed the life of her father. She worked at Eastbourne District general hospital in East Sussex. Lara Stacey Young, a nurse in the area, said: “So many people will be devastated. She was such a lovely soul.” Amarjit Aujla, a friend from childhood, said: “Her laughter was contagious and her random calls made my day. From when we were in primary school until we last spoke two weeks ago, you gave me nothing but love, support and a tummy ache with all the laughter.” She died on 26 March.

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Sudhir Sharma, 61

Sharma was an immigration officer at Heathrow Terminal 3. He died on 25 March, a day before his daughter also succumbed to the virus. It is unclear whether the pair had any contact before both contracted the disease. Sharma had health problems and had not been on duty at Heathrow since early January. Nick Jariwalla, director of Border Force at Heathrow, said: “Sudhir was a very well-respected, kind and experienced officer. He will be greatly missed by everyone.”

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Adam Harkins Sullivan, 28

Harkins Sullivan, from Camden, north London, was a painter and decorator and father to a six-year-old son. He worked with his father who gave him his nickname, Spud. Speaking to the Camden New Journal, his mother, Jackie Harkins, said: “I’ve lost something very precious to me that can never be replaced. We are all just in shock because he was only a young man. He was healthy – you didn’t have to tell him to eat his greens, he was always like that.” An otherwise fit man, he had been taken to hospital with suspected pneumonia. He died on 24 March at University College hospital in London in an isolation ward for coronavirus patients.

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Doreen Hunt, 72

Hunt was born in 1947 in Canning Town, east London, into “extreme poverty”, said her son Steve Hunt, adding that she was brought up in “one of the poorest families in a poor area”. After leaving London for Dunstable in 1973, Hunt ran an insurance business for many years with her husband, John, in the Bedfordshire town. “She became as successful in business as she was as a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother,” her son said. “She travelled the world and enjoyed a rich and varied life.” Hunt had been on dialysis for kidney problems at Luton and Dunstable hospital but her condition deteriorated rapidly and she was admitted to intensive care last Friday. She died two days later, on Mother’s Day, her family said. After her death, tests results confirmed she had been infected by the coronavirus.

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Steven Dick, 37

Dick was the UK’s deputy ambassador to Hungary. He had been with the Foreign Office since 2008 and had previously served in Kabul and Riyadh. His parents, Steven and Carol Dick, said: “Steven was a much-loved son, grandson and nephew. He was kind, funny and generous. It was always his dream to work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and he was very happy representing our country overseas.” Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent, said: “He was a jovial, intellectually curious and extremely helpful person. He spoke fluent Hungarian, having undergone a year’s training before taking up his position last autumn. Early last week he helped coordinate arrangements for me to get back into the country, and mentioned that he had tested positive for coronavirus, but at that time said he was feeling fine.”

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Allan Oldcorn, 74

Oldcorn was a retired lorry driver for Bowater-Scott, which manufactured tissues and toilet rolls. Wendy Cavin, one of his three daughters, fondly remembers him leaving sweets for her and her sisters on the family mantelpiece in Flookburgh, Lancashire, when he was doing night shifts. Speaking to the Cumberland News and Star, she said: “He was the go-to man when it came to Flookburgh charter fair day, when everybody needed toilet rolls to make their float flowers.” She added: “He was an amazing husband, dad, grandad and great-grandad – the anchor of our family.” Oldcorn, who had been “fit and healthy”, died on 21 March, a day after being admitted to hospital with shortness of breath and backache. Doctors later confirmed he had tested positive for coronavirus, Cavin said on Facebook.

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Michael Gerard, 73

Gerard was a teacher, musician, campaigner and lifelong Guardian reader. His daughter, Sushila Moles, described him as “loving, kind and always supportive”. She said he made up daily limericks and entertained her with bizarre conversations. Gerard grew up in Shortlands in Bromley, south-east London. He met his wife, Caroline, at Durham University and the couple both worked as teachers in Leicester. Later Gerard specialised in teaching visually impaired children. Moles said: “He was a hoarder, which worked well for this occupation as he always had a boot full of noisy toys and tinsel that he used to help children.” He played many musical instruments but was most accomplished at the violin and founded several orchestras and bands near his home in Clarendon Park, Leicester. He was a Woodcraft Folk leader for 30 years, a former president of the Leicester Secular Society and a frequent attender of anti-war demonstrations. In later years he had a number of health problems including Crohn’s disease. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 on 18 March and died four days later at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

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Jon Jacob, 69

Jacob was a successful property lawyer and partner at the London firm Bower Cotton Hamilton, who lived in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. He was a stalwart of quiz leagues in London and the Chilterns, known for his formidable knowledge of classical music. A friend said Jacob “wore his knowledge lightly, and was very modest and self-effacing, always genuinely surprised to be told how good he was. He was also a lovely man: kind, generous and absolutely delightful company. He will be sorely missed by all his friends in the quizzing family.” Paddy Duffy, another fellow quizzer, tweeted: “Just a lovely man, brilliant fun and incredibly erudite. I’ll remember fondly our Sunday matches and our japes on the quiz holiday in Rhodes.” Jacob died on 23 March of complications from Covid-19.

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Ruth Burke, 82

Burke was the fourth victim of coronavirus in Northern Ireland, according to her daughter Brenda Doherty. She said her mother had “unbelievable strength and suffered many challenges in her life”, adding: “Unfortunately this was one that she was not going to overcome.” In an emotional video on Facebook she said: “We couldn’t be with her when she passed. We’ll not see her coffin, we’ll not get to kiss her.” Doherty urged the public to stop panic-buying and stay indoors. “My mum would not have believed how people are behaving. She would have thought better of society. My mum was a woman who loved life. If you value life, you will stay in and do as you’ve been asked.” Burke’s death was announced by Doherty on 24 March.

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Marita Edwards, 80

She was a very gentle loving woman and a friend to everybody,” Edwards’s son Stuart Loud said. She grew up in the village of Mangotsfield near Bristol. She worked as a cleaner in a factory in the city and brought up two children with her first husband. She found a new life with her second husband on the other side of the Bristol channel in the village of Bulwark in Monmouthshire. She was a regular at the Conservative Club in Chepstow, where she enjoyed dancing. “She had a very rich social life, much better than mine,” said Loud. Edwards was a former captain of the women’s golf team at St Pierre country club in Chepstow, and continued to play golf until she was admitted to hospital for a routine operation in February. She died three weeks later of hospital-acquired Covid-19 a day after testing positive for the virus. Loud said: “She was a lovely lady and it was just a horrendous way to go. I just want to make people aware of that.”

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Peter Myles, 77

Myles’s struggles with Covid-19 were documented on social media by his daughter, the actor Sophia Myles. She said she had done it to show the “harsh reality of the coronavirus”. In 2018 she tweeted about her father’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease. Before he retired in 2008, Myles was an Anglican vicar at St John’s church in Isleworth, west London, where he was described as a “liberal soul”. After being ordained in 1971, his first job as curate was in Tideswell in Derbyshire. He spent the rest of his career in west London, including stints as a priest at St Peter’s church in Notting Hill and as chaplain to the bishop of Kensington. In his final years he lived in a care home close to St John’s. He died on 21 March.

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Wendy Jacobs

Jacobs was the headteacher of Roose primary school in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Her leadership of the school was repeatedly praised by inspectors. “This vibrant school provides a good quality of education with outstanding features,” they said in a recent report. The school’s chair of governors, Fred Chatfield, said her death was devastating for the school and the community. “This is a huge loss,” he said. Jacobs died on 22 March.

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William Stern, 85

Born Vilmos György Stern in Budapest, Hungary, on 2 July 1935, Stern was imprisoned as a child in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the second world war. He shared his memories of Torah readings in the camp on the Shoah website. After the war he settled in London and went on to build a successful property empire. Stern Holdings collapsed in 1973 and in 1978 Stern was declared bankrupt with debts of £118m, a record that stood for 14 years. He was a member of the ultra-Orthodox Haredi community in London.

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Rina Feldman, 97

Like Stern, Feldman was a member of the ultra-orthodox Haredi community. No other details about her have been reported.

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Jean Bradford Nutter

Bradford Nutter was the aunt of the former England rugby player Will Greenwood. In an Instagram post he said she “never did anything but bring sunshine into my life”. Greenwood said his aunt lived near his boarding school in Sedbergh, Cumbria. He said she was the eldest of three sisters and was in her 80s “but had so much living to do”. She died on 21 March.

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Hassan Milani

Councillor Ali Milani, who was Labour’s parliamentary contender against Boris Johnson in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the 2019 general election, revealed that his father, Hassan, had died after contracting the coronavirus on a trip to Iran. “In the early hours of this morning,” he said on Saturday, “my father tragically passed away after having contracted Covid-19. Please keep him in your prayers. This virus is taking millions all across the world.”

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Craig Ruston, 45

Ruston, a rugby fan and father of two from Kettering, Northamptonshire, had been a footwear designer, including at Dr Martens, before being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. He had been writing about his struggle with the condition before he tested positive for Covid-19. But his posts became less frequent as he began losing the strength in his upper body. In one of his last, he wrote about a dream he had of standing beside his wife and daughters at his own funeral. He wrote: “I don’t fear death, but I can tear myself to pieces if I dwell too long on what happens when I’m gone.” His family said he was “not ready to go”. He died on 16 March.

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Leonard Gibson, 78

Described by his family as a “typical jolly Irishman”, Gibson died on St Patrick’s Day, 17 March. He was born in County Tyrone and had 12 siblings. After moving to South Yorkshire aged 26, he worked at the coking plant at Orgreave. In retirement he enjoyed gardening, but problems with his lungs forced him to move into a sheltered housing flat in Oughtibridge, near Sheffield. He died in Sheffield Northern general hospital after being diagnosed with Covid-19. His daughters, Lisa, an NHS worker, and Michelle, a teaching assistant, were not allowed to visit him in hospital. Lisa said: “It is sad that we weren’t able to be with Daddy, but the nurses were there for us.”

****

Nick Matthews, 59

Described as a “true legend” of the Avon and Somerset police, Matthews retired as an officer in 2010 after a heart attack. He and his wife, Mary, from Nailsea in Somerset, had a week’s holiday on the Canary island of Fuerteventura at the end of February. Matthews was taken to Bristol Royal Infirmary after complaining of breathing difficulties on 12 March. He died on 14 March after testing positive for Covid-19.

****

Darrell Blakeley, 88

Blakeley was a churchgoer from Middleton in Rochdale and sang in the choir. He had a beautiful voice, according to a spokeswoman for St Michael’s church. He was also regarded as a “gracious gentleman”, she said. He had underlying health conditions and fell ill after coming into contact with someone who had travelled to Italy. Blakeley was admitted to North Manchester general hospital on 3 March with sepsis. He tested positive for Covid-19 on 10 March and died three days later.

****

Kimberley Finlayson, 53

Finlayson was the first British victim of coronavirus to be named after she died on holiday on the island of Bali in Indonesia on 11 March. She was the founder of a dental communication business based in Shenley, Hertfordshire, one of the counties worst hit at the start of the outbreak in the UK. She had four children. Her colleagues paid tribute to her “passion, creativity and determination”. Finlayson had lung disease and diabetes.

🕊️🙏🕊️🙏🕊️🙏🕊️🙏

[friking-awsom-kitten]

Sleeping beauty just need some coffee IASA Chapter 4

He gasped, sitting up in shock. However, something refrained him from getting enough air and was shoved up deep into his throat. He chocked and grasped whatever was blocking his airways, ripping it off. Suddenly he could breathe again and he took big gulps.

His eyes flitted around the room in a panic, not recognizing where he was. Something to his left caught his eye and he stared at the woman that had been checking a machine next to him.

The woman dropped what she was holding and screamed.

He screamed back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam had been staring out the window for a long time now. She didn't pay attention to whatever the teacher was saying. Few kids did.

Word of Danny had gotten around pretty fast and by the end of the first day everyone knew. It had been chaos.

Some people were angry and wanted to bill the Fentons for all the damage Danny's fights had gotten them. Some wanted to report the parents for child abuse. Most were furious at the GIW for disrespecting basic human rights and trying to capture a boy and were pestering the government to shut it down. The president, however, wouldn't back down, saying they were the best of the best at ghost science and this town needed them.

But almost everybody was grateful for Danny and all he'd done for the town.

A lot of people had visited him in the hospital. Including several of Sam's classmates.

They would also continuously ask the two friends questions.

About how it happened. If Danny's parents had known. Whether they got to fight ghosts too. Whether Danny would keep protecting the town or if he was ok.

Sam honestly didn't know. It had been two weeks. She'd never been more worried than she was now. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense, though. He had been exhausted. Physically and mentally. He was probably on the bridge of collapsing anyways and that blast must have depleted his energy reserves.

She sighed and glanced towards Tucker, who was staring at his phone. The device was turned off and pushed far away on the table, but the boy didn't take his eyes off of it.

All of a sudden, a sharp ring interrupted the teacher. Everyone jumped a bit in their seats and they turned to look at Tucker, who was scrambling to pick up his phone and putting it on his ear.

"Yes? For real?!" Tucker's eyes widened and he looked at Sam. "He's awake!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They burst in the hospital room. They had memorized the way long before and could walk from the receptionist to the ICU wing in their sleep.

Their eyes immediately fell on the small family in the corner.

Maddie looked about ready to cry and Jack was standing still with furrowed eyebrows. It was not a sight Tucker and Sam had expected to see.

The cause of all this grief was sitting up on his bed with a frustrated expression. He didn't have a breathing mask on anymore and the IV had been removed.

"Danny!" Sam cheered and sprang forward to hug him. He tensed under her hug and she frowned, letting go. "Danny?"

The boy huffed, looking incredibly uncomfortable. "So I've been told. Who are you?"

She was so perplexed her arms went slack. Tucker sucked in a gasp and they both turned to the doctor that had been standing next to them. He cleared his throat. "Yes. Daniel seems to suffer from Amnesia. From what you have told me and what we discovered, this was caused by a combination of sleep deprivation, malnutrition, and recent stress. The severe concussion he recently got sealed it. It affected his hippocampus." The doctor stopped reading from his paper and looked Danny over before continuing. "From what I have gathered up to now, he seems to only be affected on the explicit memory, meaning the memory of the places and the times and the people. Or the who, what, where, when and why. However, the implicit seems normal, thankfully."

"The what?" Tucker breathed out, barely able to form words as he tried to understand everything happening.

"That means the skills he has learned. He can walk, talk, breathe, and all the motoric functions he has learned throughout his life, as well as riding a bike or reading. However, I'm not sure whether his semantic memory is damaged. This is the common knowledge. For example the days of the month. Or when his birthday is. The damage on that may vary."

The raven gave an exasperated sigh. "If you go through that explanation one more time I'm gonna give myself another concussion."

"Well," Tucker smiled weakly, even though tears were threatening to fall, "he didn't change personality-wise."

The other boy grinned. "He did say I still have the skills I learned. Must have practiced my sass a lot because I'm a pro."

Sam snorted. "Yeah. You did." She turned to the doctor. "But they will come back, right? This isn't permanent?"

For the first time, the doctor's face fell. "I- we aren't sure. Retrograde amnesia, which is what this condition is called, doesn't have a cure, but there are some ways to coach old memories to come back. Most patients remember their oldest memories, but Danny doesn't seem to even have that. If he does regain some memories, it will most likely be from early childhood. However, we can't be sure. It could get better, worse, or stay like this for the rest of his life." He looked at the pale faces in the room and smiled encouragingly. "But I don't think it will get worse given that this was a brain injury, first and foremost."

He nodded towards the parents. "Before I run a blood test and prescribe anything, I need some questions answered." He took out a list and a pen. "Did Daniel take medications? Any past health problems? For example seizures or strokes or infections? Did he take drugs?" He crossed over every time they shook their heads or wrote down when they mentioned something about a panic attack or how he had had an accident in the portal.

The doctor shook his head. This kid was a walking medical catastrophe. It was no wonder he ended up with amnesia. He sighed and put his papers down. "I'll send for a drug test and he'll have an MRI scan. After that he will have to stay in the hospital for a few more days until he is fully healed. Daniel, will you let us put back the IV?"

Danny scrunched his nose. "Ugh why. I'm awake now. I just need some food. Do you guys have some fries?"

"We'll get you appropriate food after the IV is back on. Your body is still short on nutrients."

"Please, Danny." Maddie begged. "The sack also has some ectoplasm. It will help you heal faster. You will be able to get out of here sooner."

Danny pursed his lips. This woman claimed to be his mom, and let me tell you how weird it is to not even remember your own mother. He wasn't even sure if he could trust these people. They could be lying to him for all he knew. But he had no other option. Besides, that woman gave him a comforting vibe. He smiled at her unconsciously and nodded. "Alright, but the second I'm out I want pancakes."

All the medical procedures had been run and the doctor had decided Danny would stay two more days before he could go home. All Danny's injuries had been healed during his coma. He claimed nothing hurt and only complained about getting food. Something nobody was surprised about. The boy hadn't eaten normal food in weeks. What they were surprised about was that he was so restless. He should be tired. In fact, he should still be unconscious. But nobody was about to complain about that.

What Danny really wanted was a bath. He felt dirty and gross. He was horrified to learn he'd been washed during his slumber and couldn't look at any nurse in the eye after that.

However, he felt especially uncomfortable when groups of strangers walked through the door and grinned at him and gave him presents and took pictures.

He glanced at the table next to him. It was simply covered in 'thank you' and 'get well' notes and some kind of merchandise. He had also gotten many pictures and drawings, but they were so confusing he couldn't figure heads or tails of it. On the other side were also some balloons and a few stuffed animals and to top it off, all around him were flowers.

I must have been some kind of celebrity, Danny thought. But why were they thanking him?

A girl suddenly burst through the doors and tackled the poor boy. He let out a yelp and she let go just as fast as she'd latched on and started rambling.

"I'm so sorry. I came as soon as I heard and then the plane was delayed and I first had to arrange a short vacation and I had to finish this assignment and they wouldn't let me go saying you weren't in danger of death and they said 'Alright, you can go, but if you don't get that degree it's on you' and I swear I was about to strangle them."

Danny couldn't understand what she was talking about so he took the time to inspect her. She had long brownish-red hair and he could honestly see the resemblance to his apparent mother. This must be Jasmine, his older sister.

The girl seemed to catch on that Danny wasn't responding and she paused, looking at him good for the first time. They stared at each other in silence for some time, taking in the other sibling.

Jasmine held out her hand and smiled. "Hello. My name is Jasmine, but you can call me Jazz. I'm sorry about just now. I was a bit worried."

Danny blinked in surprise. Why was she introducing herself? She must know he had amnesia. He grinned. It felt nice to know at least someone didn't come asking him if he knew them or expecting something from him. He shook her hand. "I don't think I need to introduce myself since you probably know me better than I do. You're my sister, right?"

Her smile brightened and he silently congratulated himself. "Yes. I'm two years older. So I'm nineteen and you're gonna be seventeen in Oktober 27. It's July 13 today. I just came from college."

Danny smiled softly, grateful for all the information she was giving him. He felt awkward having to ask such simple things. "Are you in the first year?"

She nodded. "I'm studying creative therapy. To put it simply, it's a kind of therapy for people who can't put their problems into words so instead do it with their hands. The therapist then can study their movements and results to see how they think and how to help them. There are many types and I'm doing a mix between drama and art."

She continued talking and Danny listened. He learned so much. She told him all about her and her life and her friends and even what recently happened in college. It was as if they were catching up on old times.

She didn't mention anything about Danny, or what he used to do or what they did together and he was grateful for that. It would have felt like she was telling him what he should have done and he would've felt obligated. It was an insane thought, given that all that had happened in the past, but he didn't want people telling him who he was.

They talked for hours. Mostly she was the one speaking, but Danny often put in his opinion or input in something and she would laugh.

At one point, a violet-eyed girl and a dark-skinned boy walked in and joined them. Danny remembered them as the two people who were there when he woke up. He tensed a bit, but they just greeted him and sat down. They said some words to Jazz and turned to look at him.

The boy wiped his hands on his pants and cleared his throat, but at a look from Jazz he smiled at Danny. "Hey, man. I don't think we told you our names. I'm Tucker Foley and that's Sam Manson."

Danny nodded towards them, but frowned at the girl. "Are your eyes naturally purple?"

Sam rolled said eyes as Tucker laughed. "No." She admitted. "They're blue. I got these contact lenses from my grandmother. She didn't want them to go to waste."

Tucker laughed some more. "Her grandmom used to be really rebellious as a teen. She saw potential in Sam," he told Danny and so the conversation went into flow again.

Sam and Tucker telling Danny about themselves and complaining a bit about school. They also told him how they met.

Apparently, Danny had known these people for practically all his life. Since kindergarten. That was a weird thought.

Jazz had glared at them for bringing that up but Danny sighed. "It's ok, Jazz. I'm gonna get this a lot from now on."

Sam winced. "Sorry. Just thought you'd want some background information. If there's something you don't like talking about we won't. Just tell us, alright?"

Danny shrugged. "That's just the thing, Sam. I don't know anything about anything. Everyone expects me to know all kinds of stuff and then it's just gonna get awkward." He huffed, frowning. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. I'll just figure out what my life is now."

Jazz grinned, beaming proudly. "That's the way to look at it, Danny. Just start off fresh."

Except that wasn't entirely possible. The moment Danny was admitted out of the hospital he knew his life was way weirder than he had thought at first.

When he was let out there was a crowd waving him off and cheering and he got a green sock thrown at him so that was a nice way to enter the world fresh.

Then there was the house he apparently lived in.

He honestly had no idea what to say about that. It looked like aliens had infiltrated earth and were doing a terrible job at laying low.

He sighed, ignoring all the paparazzi and following the two adults inside. It was much better inside. It was very clean. As if it had been prepared for his arrival. That just made him feel more guilty.

Maddie and Jack were grinning at him as they gave him a tour of the house. Maddie more nervously, while Jack was excited.

The first and second story were pretty normal. On the first was the kitchen and the living room. Then upstairs were all the bedrooms. Danny paused in what was apparently his room. It looked pretty clean and neat. He must have been either a perfectionist or his mom had tidied it up for him. He was gonna go with the second one.

Finally, he was shown the basement and the op Center, which is what they called the UFO on the house. The UFO looked exactly how Danny imagined a UFO would look like. It was huge and had a lot of wires. Somewhere something was beeping, but he couldn't figure out what.

Then the basement. Danny shivered as soon as he entered. He saw millions of weird machines and guns and a milkshake maker he decided not to trust. The name Fenton appeared everywhere. Like a logo.

Then there was a door at the other side of the room. It had a beethemed pattern as if warning people of toxins. Danny felt like he should put on a face mask or something to protect himself. His father was wearing some type of protective suit.

"What do you do for a living," he asked, exasperated.

"We're ghost hunters!" Jack grinned, leaving Danny with a baffled expression.

"Why do you hunt ghosts?" He asked, stumped and curious. The part about ghosts didn't surprise him much. It felt as normal as the fact birds were chirping outside.

Jack's expression fell and he exchanged a look with Maddie. "Well son." He started cautiously. "We're ghost scientists. We have been studying them for years. We sometimes catch one to learn more about them from up close."

"Like they're animals." Danny frowned and his parents grimaced.

"They're not all sentient, Danny." It was Maddie who said this. "And Amity park has been haunted by ghosts for years. Most of them attacked and destroyed."

"Well maybe most of them just stayed home minding their own business and the ones that did mean bad came here so we don't see the other side of their world."

To his surprise Maddie smiled softly. "Yes. You may be right."

They didn't tell him much about the things in the basement. In fact it was the shortest they had been in a room and they practically shoved him back up the stairs.

They stayed in the living and talked a bit and Maddie went to the kitchen to cook some dinner because it was already pretty late in the afternoon. Danny had a foreboding feeling. Probably because how Jazz paled and sent him a few scared looks.

Danny stood up and followed his mother to see her fumbling around the fridge, trying to find something that didn't try to bite her hand off. "Hey?" Danny started, unsure if this would be seen as impolite. "Do you want me to help you cook dinner?"

The woman brightened considerably as she slammed the fridge shut and smiled at him. "Are you sure? I mean. Yes, I would love it if you did this with me."

Danny nodded and rolled his sleeves up before washing his hands. Maddie's eyes widened when she realized she'd forgotten to do that.

"So what are we making?"

Maddie scrunched her face. "I'm not sure yet, Danny. There isn't much left that is edible."

"Where do you keep all the food?" Her boy's eyes searched the small kitchen and she remembered he had forgotten all of that.

She pointed out the fridge and a few cabinets and he looked through them, bringing out many types of ingredients and selecting a few out. He asked for the pots and the pans and she pointed it out. He asked for herbs and she showed him. He asked her anything and she gave him the answer, watching in amusement as he fell right into his element.

Maddie settled back a bit as she saw him swiftly cut some carrots and dump them in the pot. She smiled. It had been a long time ago that Danny had taken the job of a cook in this house. Given that no one had any insight in it or kept mixing the sauce with the wrong chemical (what do you mean chemicals aren't supposed to go in food?). The raven had looked up recipes or he would cook ready-made food.

He'd started simple and after a while started mixing in his own stuff and experimenting. He had loved it. Maddie had let him drop a few chores so he would have time to prepare and make dinner. He would write a list of groceries and tape it on the fridge and Jack would go buy it.

In fact, Maddie could see the last note he had written still on the top left of the refrigerator. Her eyes watered a bit.

"Are you ok?"

She wiped her eyes and nodded. "Just that onion you were cutting just now. It's fine. Go ahead. You're doing a great job." She smiled. "Anything else you need?"

He shook his head as he flipped some pieces of meat on the sizzling pan. "Well, not for now. There are no more potatoes. And when was the last time you refilled the salt? And I had to use something else instead of the paprika because that's all done too. And you got way too much beef. How are you going to eat it all before it expires."

Maddie's smile turned nostalgic as she saw all he listed right now written on the little sticky note on the fridge. "We usually don't," she told him, earning herself a look of disgust.

Finally, the dinner was ready and they all say down to eat. Each family member congratulating the boy on the excellent food and what would they do without him. They didn't mention how they'd barely survived the two weeks he'd been absent.

Jazz was just in college, but Jack and Maddie had to constantly order pizza or eat in a restaurant every night. Even something as making some toast was always a hassle. Not only because the toaster sometimes malfunctioned and threw up the bread so hard it stuck on the ceiling, but Maddie was also very sure bread shouldn't be green.

Now they had Danny back. Everything had changed. Just....everything.

But he was back.

They talked a bit more. Danny asked about the many drawings they'd had to carry back home along with the rest of the presents. Who was that man on the drawings that looked to be made by kids ranging from three to fifteen?

Jack looked excited to tell him something, but Jazz had shushed them. She smiled at Danny reassuringly. "How about we talk about that tomorrow. You have enough to think on right now." She stacked the empty plates and brought them to the sink. "You heard the doctor. Get some rest. I'll do the dishes. Don't worry about school yet. You have a few weeks to recuperate and get used to life."

Danny looked at each of the people in the room, taking in their appearance and demeanor. If this was his family, no matter how crazy, he loved it. He smiled and turned around, bidding them a good night.

He walked up the stairs and paused, trying to remember where his room was.

He had a small moment of panic when he couldn't recall right away. What if he forgot more things? What if he forgot whatever he did today? What if the doctor was wrong and my amnesia isn't just of whatever happened before the concussion and I'll keep forget- oh wait his door was the one in the left hall.

He sighed in relief when his assumption was proved correct as the door opened. He closed it behind him and took a good look around.

The walls were white, but they had been covered in many posters about some kind of egg band or about a Doom. He wasn't sure. There were also some NASA posters and the wall next to his desk had a big board covered in pictures. There was a blackhaired boy with Sam and Tucker. A lot of those actually. And some about random places Danny had no clue about.

But his eyes wandered to that boy again. Was that...him?

He hadn't looked in the mirror yet. It was strange. Not knowing what you looked like.

Was that really him?

He found a mirror next to the dresser and the closet. It was large. It could fit his whole upper body and a bit of his legs.

He paused before taking a peek. A pit in his stomach and a bit of adrenaline made him jump forward and stare at the boy in the mirror.

He looked a bit older than in those pictures. But he still has black hair, blue eyes, a small nose and smallish eyes and thin lips and fat cheeks and freckles. Although he felt better knowing he had a bit of a jawline and the baby fat was less than in the pictures. His hair was also longer. And it was messy. Probably hadn't been brushed in weeks. Even if they had washed it, as they said, it still looked greasy and dirty.

He didn't feel like doing much of his appearance right now.

He wanted to explore.

He put to the side the pile of presents his father had dumped in his room after having brought it from the hospital and went rummaging through his room.

He opened every drawer, looked at every piece of clothing and squinted under every piece of furniture and he learned a bit about his past self.

He didn't have much variety in clothing. It was mostly T-shirts, jeans and sweaters. There was one neat suit shoved in the back, though.

He had some kind of obsession with stars.

Same thing goes for ghosts. There was even a map in his dresser. Along with a long list of names and some kind of description behind them.

He looked in the bathroom, which he had found he had right in his room. He found a first aid kit shoved under the sink, which he found odd. The rest was just normal supplies for in the shower.

But for the rest, his old life was still a mystery to him. Danny wondered if he would ever gain it back. Had he always been this famous? Wasn't it exhausting? And why had everyone been thanking him?

He suddenly wondered where his phone was. He should have one right? He'll ask his mother tomorrow.

But he really wanted to look up amnesia on the internet.

His eyes fell on a beat up laptop and he tried to turn it on, but it had a password. The hint wasn't even helpful. It just said 'bitch' and Danny honestly felt attacked and offended.

He plopped down on the bed with a deep sigh.

Everyone told him to get rest, but that was the last thing he wanted to do. He felt so energetic and restless. He didn't think that should be normal. He was pretty sure patients just coming out of comatose shouldn't feel rested.

Sigh, just one more thing he wanted to look up on the internet.

He also wanted to know how he went into a coma.

The doctor had vaguely mentioned a concussion or another kind of head injury. Must have been bad. He'd also made it pretty clear Danny was up long before anyone had thought he would be.

Maybe if I had slept for a bit longer, Danny thought, I would have been able to keep my memories.

He groaned quietly. Nothing made sense. Life was a weird jumble of gibberish and with every piece of information he made out it just became even weirder.

He lifted his arm to look at one picture he found he liked. A white haired anime man was standing with hands on his hips and a cape fluttering behind him. Sparkles had been thrown around as well as glitter that had been glued on.

There wasn't a note or anything, just a boy's name. Joey. Along with a small drawing of a dinosaur that Danny didn't think had anything to do with the rest.

That same anime boy turned up everywhere. On the balloons. On the plushies. On the shirt he'd gotten. On the posters the poeple seeing him off from the hospital were holding.

Who was that dude??

And what did Danny have to do with him??

Danny stood up and walked towards the mirror again. He cocked one hip as he put his hands on them and frowned at the image.

"Who are you?" He asked the boy with exasperation. "And just how crazy is your life?"

[ownworldresident]

Side by Side. Chapter 11: Care (Part One)

King Liam x Rayne (MC): With new additions to their family, Rayne and Liam re-evaluate their relationship dynamic.

Disclaimer: Most  characters are the property of Pixelberry studios. I am just borrowing them and will return them when I am done.

MASTERLIST

Side by Side Masterlist

Cameo Appearance by @hopefulmoonobject as Clair. Thanks Nesha!

“So where are we with their perspectives then?” asked Drake, “Leo have you spoken to Liam again since -”

“Since he crashed and burned spectacularly?” Clair smirked at Leo.

“Everything I do is spectacular, Clair, but that is a matter of perspective,” Leo grinned, and Drake rolled his eyes, and cleared his throat.

“Anyway talking about your brother this time. They seriously need a shove, I honestly don’t think it’s gonna work out the way it should otherwise,” he stood and moved over to window again. Liam and Rayne were still on the grass with Leo and Evelyn, and he could see wide smiles, even from here.

“Well, could you fill in some of the gaps for me, how in the hell did this happen in the first place? Tis not like my Raynnie, cliff notes version please.  I can tell she really loves him, and she holds no punches, but to see her doubt herself, it breaks my heart,” Clair stared at them expectantly.

Drake exchanged an uncomfortable glance with Leo and sighed, “how long have you known she was here?”

“Who do you think told her to jump? I work for the UN, I was on assignment, so I lost touch, I had just gotten back when your letter showed up on my desk. Talk… NOW,” Clair folded her arms and watched them impatiently. Drake hadn’t realised that Rayne had come at her recommendation.

“The short version then,” he said, then stood up and started pacing, “she got here for the social season, everything was going great, she can jump those hoops like they’re nothing,” he smirked, then frowned, “at the end there was that whole scandal thing and…” he runs his hands over his face, “we worked around the fucking clock to fix it, but we never found the bastard… Liam was engaged to Madeline by then, and they just, got married. That’s the short version.”

Clair pinched the bridge of her nose, “Scandal, the one with the pictures, you never found him? It was a setup you know that right? Raynnie is not a cheater, but what made her watch that man marry someone else? What happened, who did this to her?”

“Circumstance did this to her,” said Leo, “but they could have fixed it a long time ago. That bitch….” he shook his head and breathed in deep to calm himself, standing up, “Madeline found out that Rayne was pregnant a couple of days before the wedding. Rayne had been in and had some tests done and the doctor was coming to deliver them. And she offered this information freely, by the way. Madeline paid the doctor or intimidated him or something into saying nothing, then she told Liam on their wedding night that he was going to be a father,” he groaned, “I still can’t believe it.”

“Yes you can,” said Drake darkly, “that woman is more than capable of that you’ve seen it yourself”

“Do you know, how many human rights violations I can rain down on that bitch’s head right now?  But the big sister in me wants to handle this the New Yorker way. So who set Raynnie up? I want the answers, stop sugar coating it.  If you want this to work out, I have to help her remember who she is, and I also need to figure out Genny’s plan, her mother needs to be dealt with too.  I saw her Oscar-winning performance.”

“Okay I’ll get to the Rayne’s mother issue in a minute but to answer your questions. Constantine set her up. Liam offered to absolve his marriage the moment he found out about her being pregnant. She said no” Drake collapsed back in his chair.

“I know I am going to regret this, but I have to ask? Did Liam sleep with Madeline, I mean is their marriage valid? Yes, it is important to know,” Clair counted her fingers, mouthing silently as she ran through some list.

For a moment Drake just felt uncomfortable, glancing at Leo to see the same expression, but he ignored that and spoke up, “no. They didn’t, and it isn’t. That doesn’t matter anymore though. The marriage is over”

“It still matters, Drake,” said Leo, “it still had a huge impact, and there is still the trial. The council is going to ask the same questions, and things are going to be difficult for Li and Rayne.”

“Yes, they will be, but if there is a trial, the UN will be watching too, and Cordonia is up for a vacant seat.  Everything matters.” Clair pointed out. Drake nodded. That was going to be a fucking shit show if they couldn’t fix this.

“We need to figure out what to do then. We can’t just say it’s bad we need a plan. They need to see reason and get over their fucking stubbornness” Drake ran his fingers through his hair, “I’ve tried with Li… it doesn’t get through”

“Well, I can help there, I will work the UN angle, I have seen countries refused for less, but I may have some ideas, but I need to find that man from the scandal. I need a formal statement. The trial starts in what, 5 days?” Clair said. He nodded.

“Yes”

“Ok, I also need a word with my future-brother-in-law. Without Raynnie knowing about it. I can unofficially advise him how not you lose this appointment.  This country needs this. After that I will destroy Maddie dearest. Then Genny.  So what are you two going to do?” for a moment they both stare at Clair, and Drake wonders how the hell it took goading from Olivia to convince him to reach out to her. This should have been over before it began. He glanced at the window and back to her.

“We’ve been trying to get them to spend more time together. Liam does most of his work in their suite. Honestly, I have no idea what angle to take at this point.”

“But they might be a bit more open now,” Leo glanced at Clair, “did you speak to Liam before he left this morning?”

“Yes, whilst feeding the twins, that boy is your namesake,” Clair smiles. “He and Rayne stayed in his suite last night. I think they may be on the way to seeing reason, I have also been reminding Rayne of how strong she really is. She knows that stoic bullshit doesn’t work with me. I work with some of the biggest liars on the planet,” she ran a hand over her mouth, frowning, “I hate to say it, but Maddie’s stunt may have been exactly what those two needed.” she walked to the window to watch her friend, and saw her smile, “that is the first real smile I have seen on her face since I arrived here,” she sighed, “Liam is so torn. He still feels guilty, but he needs to put his foot down a little bit more. Ask Rayne the hard questions, make her admit her hidden truths, that is the only way to snap her out of this, is making her confront her fears. Genny always will use them against her.  Her mother is a great politician, but a lousy human, and even worse as a mother.”

Leo moved over to the window and leant on the windowsill next to Clair and looked towards where Drake knew Liam and Rayne still were, “neither of them have been that happy in months. I think they just got used to it. The next few days I think are the best shot we have,” he turned to Clair, “my brother is a guilt machine. He takes it all on. For a while Rayne helped him with that but since Maddy he’s been hiding it from her. You’re right that he needs to talk to her, really talk to her. I’ve never seen him so happy as when he met her you know, he needs to remember he still deserves that,” he sighed and turned back to Drake, “do you think he’ll listen to you now? You were the one he admitted everything to,” Drake frowned at the carpet. Yes, Liam told him how much suffering he brought on himself, but he never really listened when he had told him how to fix it.

“I honestly don’t know”

“Sorry to interrupt, but that kind of thinking isn’t going to work, you are his best friend and sometimes as best friends we have a duty to be the asshole.  Make him listen...We only have five days, I have to a day and a half to get a statement from the dipshit who assaulted my friend, You need to talk to your friend you know him better than he knows himself.  Act like it. Leo, get me a meeting with your brother tomorrow afternoon. Well, you have your assignment, I have an asshole to find. We will run a group intervention at dinner tonight, so meet me at 5:30 to hash out a plan. Ok, we have much work to do.” Clair walks out the door.

The door closed behind her and Drake turned to Leo, who looked equally as stunned, “‘we have work to do’?”

“Well you do have a lot of experience playing the asshole,” Leo shrugged, “it’s why you’re still screwing Livvy, right?” he grinned and glanced out the window one more time before moving towards the door, “I guess I have to go find Li’s assistant, ‘you have your assignment’ as well, you’ve been practising it for decades.”

“Fuck off Leo.”

“I’ll send Livvy for some stress relief,” Leo opened the door and his expression sobered as he turned back, “I hope this works, Drake. We might not get another chance, if Rayne goes through with the trial without that confidence she used to have... “he sighed.

“It’ll work Leo,” Drake stood up, “it has to.”

 The next afternoon Rayne kissed her family goodbye and left the palace. In no way did she want to have this meeting in her own home. Unfortunately, given her position, she couldn’t risk meeting her in any of her favourite places, and so decided on a very expensive cafe she would never usually go to, but offered some semblance of privacy. The whole drive there her heartbeat was increasing. It was the right thing to do… really… to let go and accept and move on.

The car pulled up outside Rouche and she stepped out, standing for a moment on the sidewalk and smoothing down her clothes. Liam had told her she looked perfect, it boosted her confidence, he also offered to come with her, which had been difficult but necessary to refuse. Hopefully the suggestions she had provided on the papers he was finalising would be helpful. Rayne smiled, hopefully he enjoyed spending some quality time with Leo and Evie.

Breathing deep, she nodded to herself and walked into the cafe. Some of the people here she had known from court, they would be present at the next social season, but for now they glanced at her with little interest. Thank goodness. She had built a good reputation she was sure, luckily they didn’t think she was worth their time, it gave her more privacy.

“Ray!” Rayne closed her eyes for a moment. Don’t call me Ray… so many times she had said it and yet it never sunk in. Rolling her shoulders back she stood tall, smiled, and walked to the booth at the back.

“Hello mother,” she said, a very small smile on her lips. No more fake smiles. Even for this woman.

“Ray, baby you look tired are you okay? Are my grandchildren keeping you awake?” Rayne sighed and observed her for a moment. There were a lot of similarities between Gen and Warner, not so many with Rayne. Her mother… she was her mother.

“No, I’m alright mother. How have you been?” the line had been set in her mind at offering advice or ‘wisdom’ or anything to do with how she raised Leo and Evie. Elsewise, it was time to hear what her mother had to say.

“Good,” she smiled, and glanced around at the cafe, “this place, and your country,” she looked back. Gen’s smile was similar to Rayne’s, and she was almost glad that the twins didn’t have that part of her as far as she could see. Despite his age Leo, for sure, would have his father and uncle’s famed smirk. Decades of resolving to take everything Gen said with a grain of salt, and it was difficult to hear her as equals, “it’s beautiful… I can see why you stayed,” Rayne breathed in deeply and out of habit kept her face stoic but mastered herself.

“Yes it is beautiful, I’ve been telling you that since I got here, but why have you never come to visit?” she hoped the question didn’t come off as too accusatory, voicing it as softly as she could. Her mother’s expression was gentle, and it didn’t suit her.

“Oh Rayne, I’m sorry, I truly am. You know that my life has been busy, it has been difficult to take time to travel so far.”

“That isn’t entirely true, though, is it,” Rayne narrowed her eyes, then was saved from the rising tension by the approach of a waitress.

“Good afternoon Lady Rayne,” the woman smiled at her. Gen frowned, but Rayne looked at her badge.

“Good afternoon Simone. Please just Rayne is fine. I haven’t seen you here before, are you enjoying it?” she sat straight and kept her attention on Simone, who’s smile widened.

“I am, Rayne, I started a few weeks ago. What can I get you two?” she turned a kind eye on Gen, who seemed taken aback. Unsurprising, given the hostile environment she lived and worked in. Cordonia was a breath of fresh air but overlooked so often.

“Coffee to start, I think,” she turned to her mother, “do you still take it black with one?” Gen seemed speechless but nodded. Rayne gave Simone her preference, and the waitress moved off. Gen turned to her and Rayne studied her.

“Is that…” she swallowed, and sat back, “the people in this cafe are so kind.”

“The people in this country are so kind. And mother, people are kind in general, if you show them the same. Cordonia is not New York,” she watched her, and saw the thoughtful frown on Gen’s face quickly supplanted by a friendly smile.

“I realise. You have done well for yourself here. Having those two grandchildren of mine, that was a good strategy. The people love you for it,” Rayne sighed heavily unbidden. It was unsurprising, but nevertheless frustrating, to have Gen refer to her actions that way. It was something she had done since Rayne was a child.

“I did not get pregnant for strategy, mother, and the people are kind to me because I show them the same kindness and respect. That is what they deserve. At the very least,” she checked her phone, though Liam knew she would still be some time, “mother I asked you here because I want to hear what you were going to tell me when you arrived. I am glad you have found my country hospitable, but I would like to know why you are here,” Gen frowned again. It was likely she had not quite expected this from Rayne.

“Am I not allowed to visit my daughter and grandchildren?” Rayne laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. Exactly what she had expected from the woman.

“No, you are not. You haven’t earned that. I’m here because I’m giving you a chance to explain yourself,” she looked up and smiled warmly as Simone set down their coffees, “thank you so much.”

“You’re absolutely welcome. The manager is busy, but he asked me to say hello, and thank you for coming,” Rayne nodded, still smiling.

“Give Chris my best,” Simone smiled again, and left. Rayne turned back to her mother, who had her hands over her mug, but still looked surprised, “it really isn’t all that difficult.”

“You do it so naturally… you really are my daughter,” Gen was surely testing her on purpose. There was no way she could actually tell her that an absentee parent had that much of an influence.

“Setting that wild assertion aside, mother, you haven’t answered me. Why are you here?” Gen stared at her, then sighed.

“I’m here because I think you are in danger. I heard something happened in the palace, though I don’t know exactly what,” she looked down at her coffee, seeming to measure her words, “I have always cared about you Ray, surely you must know that,” she looked up again and Rayne wanted desperately to dispute that claim but her mother was finally talking, so she gave her the tiny nod that spurred her to continue, “I was worried that the Queen was going to put you in a compromising position. I wanted to see if I could help,” seven times. Seven times in that short speech that Gen had referred to herself. Not one mention of anyone Rayne cared about thank goodness, one false assumption, and strange concerns.

“Why would you think something bad had happened?” Gen tilted her head and frowned.

“Why else would you opt to meet with me? You would never have done so if something had not changed. You may still remember when I tried to come the first time.”

“You haven’t changed,” Rayne took a long sip of her strong coffee, “I need you to understand, Gen, that you do not have the right to turn up after so long and assume anything about my life. I have been through a lot here. My Leo and Evelyn, and Liam, they are none of your concern and neither am I,” she stood up and turned back, placing the money for the drinks on the table, “if you want a relationship with me, you will have to put more effort in than probing my life for gossip and problems. If you wanted what you say to be okay, you should have never let Warner and I to ourselves.”

“Ray I nev-”

“Six,” she cut her off, “six years old was the last time I remember you sitting with us for dinner, or being home when I left for school, or came home from. Six was also the last time you took any interest in our schooling,” she checked her phone again and the image calmed her, “if you want a conventional mother-daughter relationship you will need to turn back twenty-two years and start again,” she turned and left, leaving any hope of rekindling a relationship with her mother behind, and at peace with that.

 Hello Clair,

 You might remember me from New York. I’m Drake, a friend of Rayne’s.

I hope you get this quickly. Rayne and Liam (who you likely also remember) are in trouble. Rayne needs you, though you know enough about her to know that she would never admit it or ask for anything. We are worried about them, but they won’t listen, there isn’t anything we can do anymore, nothing gets through.

I have included a plane ticket to Cordonia plus directions and contact details if you need any help. Though I understand if you can’t, you are our last chance to save our friends from destroying themselves.

Thanks,

 Drake Walker

Tag List: @leelee10898 @umccall71 @indiacater @speedyoperarascalparty @brightpinkpeppercorn @riseandshinelittleblossom @bella-ca @custaroonie @furiousherringoperatortoad @missevabean @thequeenofcronuts @hopefulmoonobject @kuladekiwi @mfackenthal @iplaydrake @lodberg @annekebbphotography @carabeth @wannabemc @explorer-of-gems

[shinobicyrus]

“Compromises”

A late entry for Phanniemay Day 23: Wardrobe. This may or may not have come from a draft I never finished back in 2016....Still counts!

“Nuh-uh. I am drawing a line at makeup.”

Maddie still held the...makeup...pen...thingy in her fingers like a surgeon’s scapel. “A little mascara can go a long way, Danielle.”

“So it can go on without me,” Dani crossed her arms mutinously. She’d have crossed her legs too but they were cold and too-smooth and weird. Not to mention her scalp was still raw from Maddie’s merciless regimen of washing, straightening, and combing Dani’s hair as though it had personally offended her. Probably submitted an article to a nerd-journal criticizing her research and called jumpsuits dumb.  

“I know that look,” Maddie rolled her eyes like she was the one suffering, but still returned the makeup back into the military-style hardcase she’d pulled the thing out of and snapped it shut. Oh, thank God.

“Danny give you the same look when you put him in a dress and pulled his brain out from his roots?”

“Picture day. Fourth grade. He had a black eye and absolutely refused to let me cover it with makeup. He just wanted to stay home.”

“How’d he get the black eye?”

“Some boy probably gave it to him at school, but he never said.”

“That’s because you would have raised hell about it and tattling just makes it worse,” Danny leaned against the doorway to Dani’s room, not quite crossing into it. Either it was respect to Dani’s personal space or some old holdout instinct back when it used to be Jazz’s room and entry portended big-sister lectures. 

“You know,” he said, failing to suppress a grin. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a dress. Like, ever.” 

“Go make out with a Thermos, jerk.” Dani fussed with the hem of her dress. “I look stupid.”

“You look lovely, Danielle,” Maddie nudged a stray bang away from Dani’s face. She always did that, without fail: used Dani’s full name every single time. “Although I wish you’d waited for me instead of trying to shave your legs yourself.” 

“I think the Fenton band-aids really bring the whole outfit together,” Danny said, because of course he got to wear a nice, comfortable black suit and a tie that matched the blue of his eyes. 

Dani flipped him the bird, putting a little ecto-flame at the fingertip for good measure. Hell yeah, Superpowered Eff-You, for when a normal Eff-You just wasn’t enough. “Why can't I be the one that gets the wear a suit? Everyone knows Danny can pull of a dress better than me.”

“Oh I am going to kill Tucker he swore he deleted those pictures!”

Maddie clenched her fists, gloves creaking dangerously. “Because the school board are a pack of anachronistic, narrow-minded, uptight little suburban dingbats that are lucky I limit my violence to the already dead.” 

Danny and Danielle stared. 

Remembering herself, Maddie put an apologetic hand on Dani’s shoulder. “I’m sorry we didn’t have more time, sweetie. Maybe by the time it’s your prom, you can wear whatever you like.”

Dani snorted. By the time her prom came around, everyone else would already be graduated. “Yeah, great. Who would I even go with?”

Danny cleared his throat conspicuously and made a few covert, ‘no no don’t go there’ gestures to Maddie that Danielle couldn’t see.

“But you can still have fun tonight, can’t you?” Maddie tried to cheer her up.  “I know it’s not ideal, but your fath...Jack stayed up all night getting your dress ready for tonight. There’s no harm in giving it a try, is there?”

Guiltily, Danielle gave Maddie her most reassuring smile. Both of them ignored her slip of the tongue. As long ago as it felt, three years wasn’t all that much time- even if it was more than half of Dani’s pathetically brief existence. 

Coming to terms with their son being half-ghost was one thing, but finding out they had a clone-daughter? It wasn’t like she was a traditional surprise-child from faulty birth control or some torrid affair. She was the result of genetic piracy; the world’s most fucked-up copyright infringement.  

They didn’t have to take her in. They didn’t owe her anything, and they still went through all the trouble of making a fake paper trail so she could do 'normal’ things like go to school- which Danielle was personally not a fan, but even Danny told her it was ‘important.’ It was a small price to pay for a soft bed and three square meals a day. 

(Mads had been aghast that she’d had been crashing at Val’s apartment on and off for months, with Mr. Gray none the wiser. Jack had been mostly confused about Dani sleeping in a closet but equally adamant she come and stay ‘where she belonged.’)

She still couldn’t call them Mom and Dad. That was just. It was weird. Sometimes she wished she could. Then maybe she could pretend that she was...

But no. She wasn’t.  

So they were Maddie and Jack. Danny existed in some weird cousin/twin/ecto-brother continuum, why would things with his/their parents be straightforward? Technically, Dani didn’t need to stay at Fenton Works. If she wanted, she could grab her backpack and fly away, completely drop off the grid again. She had the power. It had been more than a temptation, once or twice. 

She stayed. They experimented and improvised and somehow invented a new species of family that had never existed before. It got bumpy. Sometimes there were fights. Jazz, away at Yale but always a phone call away, reminded her constantly that relationships weren’t about winning fights. You had to compromise. 

So Dani went to school, but stipulated permission to sleep over at Val’s, sometimes. They let her patrol with Danny, but only after homework. She let Maddie pretty her up, and Maddie didn’t push her hard about the makeup. Jack stayed up all night adjusting one of Jazz’s old dresses- the least Dani could do was wear it. Not like she had a closet full of other options. 

(Sam and Val had offered to take her shopping. The idea of Val watching her try on dresses...)

Danielle shook her head. “No. I guess I can try it. Just for tonight.”

“That’s my girl.”

It came out so naturally; Danielle flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and pride. 

With her door open into the hall, the sound of the front door opening carried upstairs, a voice familiar but muffled through floorboards calling out. 

“That must be Tuck,” Danny said. “See you downstairs, I owe him a punch in the arm.” 

“I should get down there too,” Maddie said after Danny had left. “I promised Tucker’s mother pictures of the boys together in their suits. You come down when you’re ready, okay sweetie.”

“Kay.”

 Smiling down at her ruefully, Maddie cupped Danielle’s face and planted a quick peck on her forehead. (The first time she’d tried to do that, Dani had panicked and Maddie had almost fallen face-first into the floor through her intangible head. Progress!)

After she left, Danielle sighed and smoothed down the dress as if it would improve things...and felt two weird bumps in the fabric around waist-high.

“Huh?” Patting herself down, Dani found a pair of hidden pockets woven seamlessly into the dress. Digging around this new discovery she found...a pack of sour candies labeled in marker with Jack’s sloppy handwriting: ‘Fenton Emergency Snacks!’

“Oh sweet! Pocket Candy!” It took every ounce of willpower not to tear into them right then and there, but she knew she’d definitely be needing them later in the night. Instead, she rifled around her room trying to remember where she left her phone- hidden in the folds of her Star Wars blanket, of course- and experimentally put it into her new kickass Jack-Pockets.

It slid in perfectly. Oh hell yes.

Normally Danielle shopped in the men’s section because the sizes made sense and the pockets were real, but she never considered going to Jack to get slightly girlier clothes altered after she got them. Not like dresses or anything, but Sam wore some pretty kickass skirts that Danielle was totally looking at purely for fashion tips and no other reason. She could always try that.

Her own reflection flashed her the corner of her eye, a swish of blue in the full-length mirror.

The dress wasn’t all that bad, really. Jack had done a great job. Knee-length, the same shade of blue as Maddie’s jumpsuit- which as it turned out matched Dani’s eyes pretty well. 

Her legs still itched like they were covered in cobwebs, feeling every miniscule little shift in the air, or when the hem of the dress brushed against her pale skin, cut smooth and dotted with bright greens and oranges. 

Yeah...the Fenton bandaids definitely were not flattering. 

Playing with her phone reminded her she still had a promise to keep. Pulling up the camera function, she stepped back, sized up the image of herself in the mirror, and took the picture. Deleted it, tried again by sticking out her tongue and making her eyes glow bitter, ghosty green. 

‘If you think this is bad, imagine if I’d let the Madd-Scientist break out the mascara’

Aaaand...send. 

The response pinged back in less than twenty seconds. 

JAZZ: You look adorable. I hear Red and Blue go great together ;)

Dani typed back, Quiet you, and pocketed  (yeeessss) her phone back into her dress before Jazz text jedi mind-tricked her to talk about feelings. Girl is freaky, sometimes. Below her feet, the telltale sounds of Danny-Tucker bickering soaked up through the creaky floorboards.

...welp, she was going to have to face the music eventually, right?

The house-rule against floating still couldn’t stop her from hopping downstairs two at a time, feet thumping loudly. 

Danny and Tucker were in the living room, arms around each other while Maddie and Jack were taking photos. Maddie was taking a few with Tucker’s phone while Jack was snapping pictures with an blocky, black camera that looked positively ancient. 

“Does that thing use film?” Danielle said incredulously. “Where do you even get that developed.” 

“We develop our own film!” Jack boasted. “The patented Fenton Emulsion(TM) not only lets us take cherished family memories, but also catalogue any lurking, invisible ghosts that might be photobombing!”

Before Dani could give that its proper response, Tucker gasped loudly and dramatically. “Oh. My. God. Danielle?! What happened to you?”

“Ha-ha so funny I’m in a dress wow I’m so glad we got to share this moment together and bond closer as friends.”

“You’re in a dress!” Tucker ignored her, hell-bent on milking this for all it was worth. Running to her like a distressed parent, he shook her shoulders. “Who did this to you Dani? It’s okay, you can tell me, I’m here for you.”

“This is because I told Danny about your embarassing picture stash, isn’t it?”

“There’s a stash?!”

“Oops.”

“It actually looks good on you,” Tucker tapped his chin, pouting the thoughtful moue of a guy who spent a lot time designing his MMO characters’ outfits. “I think the bandaids-”

“Already made that joke,” Danny piped up.

“Dammit,” Tucker muttered, then remembered who else was in the room. “Uh...I mean ‘oh gosh darnit.’”

Maddie rolled her eyes. “Oh please, as if all three of you don’t swear like a pack of sailors on shore leave.”

“Darn right,” Danielle grinned at Tucker. “You don’t look half bad, Tuck.” She reached up and flicked the beret-red bow tie around his neck. “Look at you all snazzy.”

He did actually look pretty dang handsome, Dani had to admit. The striped shirt and the bow tie was a bit of a 90s- maybe it was an old suit of his Dad’s- but he filled out pretty well. Tuck may not have been going to the dance with a date, but Dani was willing to bet money that he’d get a couple of offers when they all got there.

“I thought we were supposed to be snazzy together though!” Tucker said. “We had a plan!”

“School board nixed it. No gals in snazzy suits, the world isn’t ready.”

“Well if it’s any consolation, I think you look beautiful.”

The complete, utter frankness he said it made Danielle’s cheeks redden. “I- Tuck...I-”

“Not as pretty as Danny if he was wearing it but-”

“Tucker I have invisibility powers and a long, long memory.” Danny warned him.

“Well Danny can’t have this dress it’s awesome and mine, check it:” She pulled out her phone and candy from its pockets.

“Hey!” Jack exclaimed. “You found the emergency snacks!”

“I did and it was awesome,” shuffling on uncertain feet, Danielle willed herself to cross the living room and threw her arms around him. He was still so big- her face was buried in his stomach and she could barely get his arms around him, and when he hugged her back it felt like being enclosed, his arms were so wide. 

(the ghost of a stolen childhood memory, Danny small and at an age before black eyes at school, when his dad was the smartest, strongest guy in the world and nothing bad could happen when you were in those arms)

“Thanks, Jack. You made dresses cool.”

“Yes! Hear that, Maddie? I’m cooool.” 

“Not what I said but I’ll let you have it.”

“The coolest, hun.” Maddie agreed, with the telltale sound of a shuttering camera. “And thank you for the new wallpaper.”

“Does this mean we’re finally done with the pictures?” Danny asked. 

“I suppose it makes sense to wait until the girls get here.” Maddie allowed. 

“Why are they the ones picking us up again?” Tucker piped in. “Like, isn’t it traditional for the guys to be picking up the girls?”

“Not when Sam sprung for a luxury party-limo.”

Tucker accepted this without hestiation. “Ha, take that gender norms.” 

Danielle fidgeted with the blue sash tied around her wait. “Did...uh...did they say when they were going to be here?”

The doorbell of course chose at that moment to chime; Danielle almost jump-floated to the ceiling.

Danny grinned at her smugly. “She might have mentioned it, yeah.”

Asshole. He gave their face a bad name.

"Oh fine, I’ll get it,” Tucker threw up his arms, muttering to himself all the way. “Not even my house but sure.”

Danny furtively adjusted his tie and smoothed his hands down his suit-jacket. Danielle failed to ignore the almost identical mannerism she’d used when double-checking her dress. 

God, they were dorks. 

They couldn’t see anything from the doorway, just Tucker standing in the hall and leaning in to hug someone. Stepping aside like a bowing gentlemen, he held open the door and-

And.

Well, damn. 

“Oh Sam, you look wonderful,” Maddie gushed. “She looks lovely, doesn’t she Danny?”

It wasn’t as dark as Danielle guessed. The gown was a deep, smokey violet from the waist down; the two halves of a black bodice laced together in an intricate filigree that left just a sliver of suggestion of skin beneath a sheer, black fabric that also covered her bare, strapless shoulders like a mourning shawl. 

“Blugh,” was the limit of the words that Danny could manage.

“That good, huh?” Sam’s purple lips quirked. The mascara shadowing her eye sockets made the matching violet of her eyes that much more striking.

“Don’t forget to exhale, Danny,” Dani suggested in a sotto whisper.

A familiar voice carried through the door. “Okay, the driver said he’s fine with waiting while we take some pictures. My dad made me promise to take about three million pictures of us all before we- oh.” 

Valerie stood in the living room’s threshold, phone half-raised but completely forgotten in her hand. 

She was wearing a ruby red dress that flowed smoothly over her curves, flaring just above her knees and terminating in an upside down ‘V’ at her collarbone that tied subtly around her neck, leaving the sweep of her shoulders bare. The muscles of her arms stood out, firm and corded.  

Dani realized that Valerie was staring at her. This fact alone made her ten thousand times more aware that her legs were naked and bare and itching with phantom prickles oh God the band-aids why did she think it was a good idea to try shaving the night of-

“Uh. Hi.” Valerie cut through the screaming white noise filling her head.

“Blugh.” Danielle responded. Tucker gave her a thumbs-up. In the corner of her eye, she saw Danny fumble tying a purple corsage around Sam’s slender wrist.

“You look amazing,” Valerie told her. Dani found the movements needed for her full, red lips to make those words fascinating. 

Her throat felt unbelievable dry.

“It’s the band-aids!” Danielle blurted. “Really brings the whole outfit together!”

Valerie blinked, momentarily confused. Then she looked down. 

“Oh my God,” she laughed, hand flying to her mouth. “What did you do to yourself?”

“Mistakes were made.” Danielle admitted. “I have traced them back to the decision to wear a dress.”

“Doesn’t look like a mistake from where I’m standing.” Valerie smiled at her, which was all the permission Dani’s guts needed to start doing backflips in her belly. “And you can look forward to taking it off at the end of the night-”

She froze in mute horror the second the words left her mouth.

Danny and Sam’s heads swiveled, first to Valerie, then to Danielle, finally swinging around to Maddie, whose face had gone unreadably blank. 

Tucker had the manic look of a man who had been given a wonderful, wonderful gift.

“I swear,” Valerie said slowly. “I did not mean it to sound like that.”

“Make it sound like what?” Jack asked, genuinely confused. 

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Maddie told him.

The room was very quiet. Danielle slowly reached into her pockets and pulled out her emergency snacks. She tore open the packet and offered it to Valerie. “Topic change?”

“Please.” Desperately snatching the candy like a woman being carefully studied by a mother with access to high-powered weaponry, Valerie chewed through a handful of candies before realizing: “Wait...how does your dress have pockets?”

“Oh that was me!” Jack boasted. “Sewing isn’t that much harder than jumpsuit maintenance! I used to make all of Danny’s Halloween Costumes before he got too “cool” for it.”

Somehow, this quickly jumped into Sam insisting on seeing pictures of Danny dressed as an Astronaut or one of the Ghost Busters, which seamlessly steered back them standing all together while Maddie and Jack took more pictures; Danny with one arm around Sam’s waist and the other linked with Tucker’s, Valerie hugging Danielle from behind and resting her chin on Dani’s shoulder to fit both of them in frame. 

By some miracle consensus, no one said anything about Valerie’s hilariously and unfortunately-worded slip-up. 

All through the photos, and even as Valerie held her hand and walked with her out the door, Danielle felt at the pocket at her waist with her free hand, checking to make sure the Fenton Emergency Snacks were still there.

Yeah she really owed Jack big time, now. 

[mermaidsirennikita]

May 2018 Book Roundup

I don’t know when I got so into thrillers--but here we are.  Of course, I’m not as into the types of thrillers that are about a cop pursuing a killer.  It’s more the insidious types of domestic thrillers that catch my attention, about idle suburbanites who secretly harbor paranoid minds and little hatreds.  That’s probably why I enjoyed “A Simple Favor” by Darcey Bell and Liv Constantine’s “The Last Mrs. Parrish”, however much they polarized readers.  They both feature horrible women, stupid men, unreliable narrators, and endings that don’t neatly tie up loose ends.  In other words, they’re perfect summer reads.

The Defiant by Lesley Livingston.  3/5.  The second in a series, The Defiant returns to the world of female gladiators and in particular Fallon.  Now triumphant and happy in a ludus run by her sister, Sorcha, Fallon expects to have it easier.  However, her life is upturned when the women of the ludus are accused of rebelling, and Sorcha goes missing.  I rated The Valiant, the first book in this series, four stars so I must have enjoyed it, but I also don’t really remember it, aside from the basic plot and being interested in Sorcha and Fallon’s relationship.  I would still say that the sister relationship is the core focus of the plot, which is different (and distracts from a fairly shallow romance between Fallon and Cai, a Roman soldier; there’s an opportunity for something cooler, but the author bypasses that completely).  But I think I’m over this series; this book drove home that it skews too young for me to enjoy it.  The gladiatrix thing is cool, but there’s so much in this book about how the ludus is home, and like... hasn’t everyone been enslaved by Romans to some degree?  Taken from their homelands?  Forced into a blood sport to be entertainment?  It’s fun, and I won’t say that it isn’t without merits, but this is too shallow for what it takes on.

Fatal Throne by Candace Fleming et. al.  4/5.  A collaborative novel from the perspectives of all six of Henry VIII’s queens--and Henry himself.  What impressed me about this book was how it wasn’t really straightforward.  It seems like it might be at first; Catherine of Aragon’s section kicks it off by detailing the beginning of Catherine’s life in England, up until her marriage is collapsing.  Now, don’t think that this makes it a bad story; I quite liked it.  Catherine of Aragon is, in this version, for once more than a stereotypical zealot queen, though the author does that thing where a character whose native tongue is Spanish constantly throws random Spanish words into English sentences, which doesn’t feel real.  But anyway; many of the other stories are less traditional.  All revolve around the queens’ downfalls or deaths; for example, Anne (or Anna, as she’s called here) of Cleves has a story that really centers around her dying days, and the ghosts of her past.  There’s a weird, haunting creepiness to everything.  Though there are some rather shallow moments--including one bit in the Anne Boleyn story that seemed... pretty off--and there isn’t any reinventing of the wheel, it’s a sad retelling of the wives’ story, where the central villain is undeniably Henry VIII.

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian.  2/5.  Theodosia was a child when she was forced to witness the murder of her mother, the queen of Astrea.  Since then she’s been beaten and terrorized in the submission by the conquering Kaiser, forced to live as Lady Thora, the Ash Princess.  The combination of being forced to commit a terrible act and the reappearance of a childhood friend wakes Thora to the reality of her people’s suffering, and spurs her to action.  She’s given a task: seduce the crown prince, and kill him.  So yeah, pretty typical fantasy stuff, but that doesn’t mean it has to be bad.  What makes it bad is Theo’s flip-flopping as a character and a truly dismal love triangle.  Neither romance feels real, and Theo’s constantly between dithering and acting like... Stormborn-lite.  Oh, yes.  The GoT influence is strong in this one.  I just wish it had been more interesting.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain.  3/5.  The turbulent romance between Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, writer Martha Gellhorn, is told from Gellhorn’s perspective.  I remember really liking McLain’s version of Hemingway’s first marriage, “The Paris Wife”, but that was so long ago that I can’t remember much of it.  And for that matter, that marriage--which occurred during Hemingway’s years as part of the Lost Generation in Paris--was a very different animal from what he shared with Gellhorn.  You get the expected beats--Gellhorn and Hemingway meeting, her being initially starstruck while harboring her own ambitions, their work during the Spanish Civil War, the affair that led to a marriage, and that marriage’s destruction because Hemingway was incapable of holding a decent relationship and Gellhorn’s fierce independence kept her from being the idealized wife he wanted--but while the writing is pretty... the expectedness keeps the book from being more than exactly what it is.  And though obviously Gellhorn was a good bit younger than Hemingway and obviously her love for him and hero worship of him allowed to overlook shit long enough to up and marry the guy...  I just don’t really buy that Martha Gellhorn would speak and act the way McLain seems to think she did.  She’s so over the top as a young woman in love.  The book is fine, it’s just uninspired.

Trespassing by Brandi Reeds. 4/5.  Veronica is at her wit’s end, caring for a toddler while her husband is often gone for work as a pilot, while at the same time pumping herself full of hormones for her fertility treatments in order to have a second child.  Still traumatized by the miscarriage she suffered recently, she is shocked when her husband, Micah, doesn’t come home--on the same day that their daughter claims that “Daddy went to God Land”.  Swept up in a mess of emotions and falling under suspicion from the police, Veronica flees with her daughter to the Florida Keys, where her husband had a house in her name.  But the island life presents even more questions.  Who are the children in the photos she finds, and why is Micah with them?  This is a solid, engaging thriller that somehow is at its most disturbing when you consider the fact that Veronica’s mind is rattled in part because of what she’s put her body through via fertility treatments.  Veronica is sympathetic, and rather than stupidly accepting things like thriller protagonists often do, she’s paranoid, protective, never quite trusting anyone.  Why should she?  While I won’t say that the reveal in the end is one of the best I’ve read, the story as a whole is very interesting, and I appreciated the fact that Reeds really delved into the mind of a woman with a bit of feminine body horror--like, in a sensitive way.  It’s different.  The book is as much about Veronica’s identity as anything else.

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine.  4/5.  Amber envies the lives of glamorous trophy wives, none of them more than Daphne Parrish.  Daphne has it all: a handsome, doting, extraordinarily wealthy husband, two daughters, and all of the possessions she could desire.  So she begins her plan: befriend Daphne under the guise of a homely, Pollyanna type and steal her life.  But as Amber becomes closer to Daphne, she constantly has to look over her shoulder for ghosts from her past that could disrupt her plan.  Little does she know that the real danger could be closer than she thinks.  This book was kind of disturbing and definitely does not have the type of ending that will leave you.... feeling morally good.  But it’s juicy. It’s Big Little Lies kind of juicy, about vaguely psychotic women with rich and famous lives.  Frankly, I would have appreciated more development of the female characters aside from Amber and Daphne, but the two of them were great as is.  You spend about half the book in Amber’s mind, and she is HEINOUS.  But in an interesting, darkly funny way.  The book isn’t going to be for everyone, but I found it extremely entertaining.

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton.  2/5.  Marisol has never been to Cuba, the homeland her grandmother, Elisa, fled as a young woman.  She returns to scatter Elisa’s ashes after the death of Fidel Castro.  However, she didn’t expect to connect with Luis, a historian and dissenter in the current regime--nor did she expect to discover that her grandmother had an affair with a revolutionary.  This book has a lot to say about Cuban politics; and I value that.  But unfortunately, the political backdrop takes over the story, which is very paint by numbers.  Nothing surprising happens.  The characters are dry.  I wish I loved it, but I just didn’t.

From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon.  3/5.  Teenage Twinkle is an aspiring filmmaker, out of sorts as her relationship with her best friend Maddie--newly popular while Twinkle remains a bit of nerd--deteriorates.  She’s surprised when Sahil--the shy twin brother of her crush, Neil--asks her to collaborate on him on a gender-flipped version of Dracula, but it isn’t long before she’s starting to look at Sahil in a very different way.  At the same time, however, she’s corresponding via email with her secret admirer, N--who she very much suspects is Neil.  What is Twinkle to do?  I loved Menon’s debut, When Dimple Met Rishi, and I’m still very excited for the spinoff of that book.  It was a perfect little romcom.  This was not.  This book read much younger--and Twinkle and Sahil are a bit younger than Dimple and Rishi were.  But their voices were also VERY immature, and in general it just... missed the mark for me.  I think someone younger would love this book.  It did touch on several really great threads, especially with Twinkle’s family.  But I didn’t feel the same thing I felt with WDMR at all.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand.  4/5.  When her best friend Prince Audric finds his life endangered, Rielle saves him--exposing herself as capable of wielding all seven types of elemental magic.  There are two people foretold to have this gift; one will be a queen who brings light and salvation, while the other holds blood and destruction.  Put to the test in a series of trials, Rielle must prove exactly which one she is.  A thousand years later, bounty hunter Eliana is shocked to find her mother kidnapped, with the only person who can help find her being a rebel leader.  In joining up with him, Eliana defies the empire she’s worked for--and puts herself in terrible danger.  This book is an interesting one; the two narratives you’re following are focused heavily on their respective leads, and neither woman is traditionally “good”.  Eliana has the charm of being a tortured rogue, at least--Rielle is more complex, obsessed with adulation and self-centered to the point of callousness.  But I enjoyed both of them, with Eliana’s story picking up a few points over Rielle’s towards the end... which was a pleasant surprise, as at first I wasn’t sure if Eliana’s side of things would measure up to Rielle’s.  There is a lot amgoing on, so things can get a bit confusing--and this makes the middle drag a bit.  But the ending left me dying for more, with the only other complaint I can make being that Legrand could work on her sex scenes a tad.  But if you’re looking for a female-centered story with a few guys who are all about that undying devotion thing, plus a sexy villain and moral ambiguity, I recommend this one highly.

One Match Fire by Lissa Linden.  2/5.  Twelve years ago, Paul and Amy were camp counselors--and he broke her heart.  Now Amy is back to run the camp after Paul quits, though they don’t realize that they’ll be meeting up again until she’s at his door, physically different but emotionally still affected by what happened between them during their teen years.  Both frustrated and with few other options, they make a deal: until Paul leaves, they’ll have a purely sexual relationship.  But Paul wants to know what really has Amy rattled--and he doesn’t want to leave anymore.  I like romance, I like erotica--I wasn’t sure how to categorize this book, as most of it is graphic sex but I don’t know, the erotica bells weren’t quite ringing for me--but I still need stakes.  They don’t need to be fantasy stakes.  They don’t need to be thriller stakes.  It could be that the family business is about to go under; it could be that the leads are dueling lawyers.  STAKES.  This book has no stakes.  I thought that Paul did something super shitty when these (28 year old) people were kids, but like... it was a bit douchey, but tons of people were dicks to me in high school, I was a dick back, and I don’t remember much of it.  Certainly, I found Amy’s reaction a bit over the top.  At the same time, Paul was--very shortly into this sexual relationship--being like “give yourself to me emotionally Amy” and I was like lmao dude why y’all haven’t spoken there is no reason for you to be so invested in this woman.  He was so pushy, it really irked me.  The sex scenes were okay.  “Will these two people run a camp together” just wasn’t a big enough question to keep me interested.

A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell.  4/5.  Widowed, neurotic mommy blogger Stephanie has found the best friend of her dreams in Emily Nelson, a wealthy publicity exec with a handsome husband and beloved son Nicky, who happens to be the best friend of Stephanie’s son Miles.  So when Emily asks Stephanie for a “simple favor”--to watch Nicky for a few hours after school--Stephanie doesn’t hesitate to do so.  But when Emily doesn’t show to pick Nicky up--when she isn’t even home by the time her husband Sean returns from a business trip--Stephanie goes on red alert.  It isn’t long before the police find Emily’s body; and it also isn’t long before Stephanie begins taking her place.  As Stephanie begins receiving odd messages, the question is impossible to avoid: what really happened to Emily Nelson?  Alternating between Stephanie’s blog posts and the characters’ perspectives, “A Simple Favor” is one of those thrillers that is kind of balls to the wall insane.  You can expect to find that Emily wasn’t all that she appeared to be.  But Stephanie’s secrets are just as great, if not greater.  I’ve seen a common complaint regarding this book regarding the fact that none of the characters are good people.  For me, that just made it more delicious.  Emily is this enigmatic, alluring figure luring over the entire story, and you just can’t shake her appeal.

[buckybarnesappreciationsociety]

EPILOGUE: Healing (One Day At A Time)

Summary: We’ve come to the end of “James Buchanan Barnes: Family Man.” I’ve had so much fun with this series. Next up, Izzy’s in college. 

Words: 1,325

Warning: PTSD reference

The fallout from Izzy’s kidnapping  was stressful for the Barnes family. Dr. Cho recommended therapy for everyone. The first session took its toll on everyone, especially Izzy. She would sit with her legs pulled to her chest, staring into nothingness.

A well-known female family therapist came to the Tower twice a week; one session with the family and one with Izzy. Determining the terrified teen suffered from PTSD, a mild sedative was prescribed to help her sleep.

At first, the medicine had virtually no effect on Izzy. Her nightmares were horrific. She would vault up, in a cold sweat, chest heaving looking around the room, reaching out for her dad.  Bucky started sleeping next to her bed. She would hold his hand and drift off to sleep. With time, the nightmares dwindled and Izzy was able to sleep on her own, with a night light.

In spite of her progress, Izzy remained apprehensive about venturing outside until her therapist suggested a rooftop session, with Bucky in tow.

Dr. Samantha  Burgdorf, coaxed Izzy outside. Reluctantly, she agreed. Bucky held her hand as they walked through the doors leading to the pool area. Immediately, Izzy started to shake and hyperventilate.

Recognizing a panic attack, Izzy’s attentive father whispered soothing words into her ear.

Finally, her breathing evened out. Dr. Burgdorf asked Izzy if she wanted to go inside and she shook her head ‘no.’ Bucky continued to sit on the chaise lounger holding Izzy’s trembling body.

The session lasted longer than normal. After Izzy’s panic attack, she opened up more, discussing in detail what she really went through. Tears rolled down her father’s face listening to his daughter talk about how she was treated by the man who helped create her.

Voice barely above a whisper, Izzy picked at her fingernails as she spoke.

“Ro-Rodney said so many nasty things about mom. He called her a whore and a mattress; something for a man to jump up and down on!

When I wanted to cover my ears, C-Caleb tied my hands and made me listen. It felt like a tape recorder playing over and over again in my head!”

Izzy shook and sobbed loudly. Bucky cradled her against his chest, rocking back and forth.

Continuing, “When I had to use the bathroom, Caleb would watch me walk in. One time he opened the door while I was on the toilet! Rodney slapped him.”

“They snorted cocaine. That’s when I was really afraid because their eyes got real big and they talked funny.”

Seeing how drained Izzy had become, Dr. Burgdorf ended their session. “Isabella, I’m so proud of you for taking an important step. This is the first time  you’ve been outside in over 3 weeks. That’s progress.” Izzy pulled her lips into a tight smile. “Thank you.”

Holding Bucky’s hand, Izzy walked alongside her dad inside the Tower. He shook hands with the doctor and waited as she entered the elevator.

Turning to his daughter, “I’m so sorry you that happened to ya Izz, but we’re here for ya okay?’

“Okay dad. I know.” She kissed his cheek, giggling as his stubble tickled her lips.

Jillian felt left out and useless. She couldn’t understand why Izzy gravitated to Bucky and not her. Understanding her concern, Bucky made sure his wife felt loved and needed.  He bought rose petals, scattered them from the bed to the bathroom. Sandalwood candles cast a shadow on the tiled walls and her favorite bath bomb, “Fresh Rain,” provided a calming aroma.

Gently removing Jillian’s clothes, Bucky carried her to the clawfoot bathtub bridal style and lowered her weary body in the soothing warm water. Without a word, Bucky washed her hair, then moved to Jillian’s body; massaging her shoulders. A moan emitted from her mouth as her attentive husband rinsed and dried her off.

Moving to their bed, Buck lotioned Jillian’s body and she put on one of his shirts. Placing a searing kiss on his lips, she mouthed ‘thank you’ as tears escaped her dark circled eyes.

“Buck, how did you know what I needed.” Pulling her body flush against his, “I love you doll, a helluva lot. You’re the love of my life. Izzy’s not the only one feeling low.  You’re the woman Imma spend the rest of m’life with.”

Turning to face her wonderful husband, Jillian whispered, “James, you’re the air I breathe. Thank you for being supportive to our kids and me.”

Bucky’s voice dripped with sincerity. “Ya know Izzy’s gonna be alright? Don’cha ever feel like she doesn’t need ya cuz it ain’t true. Give her time.”

Laying her hand on his face, “I know baby. Sometimes I feel a little left out, but you’ve dealt with trauma and understands better than I do what she’s feeling. Thank you.”

“No thanks needed, It’s m’pleasure. C’mere, I’ve missed ya woman.”

Yawning, “I’ve missed you too.”

3 months passed and Izzy became antsy. She longed to go outside and play with her brother and friends. Little Stevie sorely missed his big sister. They shared an unshakeable bond.

The sun beamed through her teal and white curtains. Stretching, Izzy placed her feet on the floor and stared out of the large window. It was time to take her life back.

Making her way to the elevator, Izzy visited Uncle Tony in his laboratory. He was thrilled to see her.

“Hey Izz, what brings you to my humble abode?” As usual, he sat at a table, tinkering with one of his latest creations.

Sighing, “Uncle Tony, can we have a barbeque out back? I’m ready to go outside and it would be great if everyone came too.”

Pulling her into an embrace, Tony was ecstatic. “Yes! I’ll have Pepper get everything together and have FRIDAY alert the team. It’ll be small, just us. Happy you’re feeling better kiddo. I’ve missed you.”

Wrapping her arms around his waist, Izzy spoke into his chest. “Missed you too Uncle Tony. Thank you for being there for me and my family.  It means a lot.”

“The pleasure’s all mine Izzmeister. Get outta here. I have a shindig to plan!”

As promised, Pepper and Tony went all out for this family gathering. Kayla, Maddie and their parents showed up.

Time came for Izzy to take the first steps to reclaiming her life. With Jillian, Bucky, and little Stevie by her side, the determined young lady sighed heavily, with her hands on the door handle leading to the backyard.

Left foot...right foot...breathe

Izzy could feel panic bubbling in her chest but refused to allow it to stymy her progress.

Left foot...right foot...breathe

She relished in the smell of crisp air, fresh cut grass, and food smoking on the grill.

Left foot...right foot...breathe

An overwhelming sense of relief ebbed and flowed through her body. For the first time in almost 5 months, Isabella Marie Barnes greeted her extended family and friends. They in turn, applauded and shed tears.

Jillian and Bucky beamed with pride at her spunk. Little Stevie held her hand as she received hugs from everyone. Even Dr. Burgdorf’s eyes were damp. She knew the hell Izzy had endured. To see her progress warmed her heart.

Izzy, Stevie, Maddie and Kayla froliced in the yard playing soccer against Sam, Bucky, Steve and Peter! Nat and Wanda held Jillian tight as they openly wept.

The sun shined bright, birds chirped a peaceful melody and laughter filled the air!

There were setbacks. But for every dismal day, 3 good days took its place.  

The Barnes family crossed a major hurdle with determination, love and support. Times like these caused Bucky to reflect on his life and why he wouldn’t change anything.

James Buchanan Barnes, family man!

Fin

[the-voice-of-hell]

The Septagram

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-   Previous   -    First   -

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***

PART SEVEN:

PARADISE

“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:  And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this bookTM.”

                                     TMAvailable soon on Amazon Kindle!

***

The Queen was in control again, The Septagram was hers, and Seattle was done.  The pink lights of faded halos lit, the orange light of Abalaam’s flaming corpse, and the white light of Amduscias filled the cavern adequately.  Goat boys started to surround people, to lean on them, but Bymaan commanded them to stay their hands.

She straddled the neck of her camel - her throne - and commanded everybody’s attention with hands orant.  “Today I have paid the price for sins of my past.  I mistreated my wheels, Bybaal and Abalaam.  Let me not repeat those sins today.  My judgment is mercy.  Jennifer, Sergio, stand before me.”

Jen grumped at the goats and they quailed away from her, as the two of them approached the Queen.  Amduscias fell in beside them, despite his earlier treachery against Jen’s cause.  She looked at the unicorn in consternation, then back to Bymaan.

The Queen said, “I wanted our shared blood to count for something, I wanted a chance for us to live together in love.  But I can see now that will not be possible.  For your crimes, you must be banished forever from The Septagram.”

Jen wanted to protest, to say Seattle’s name, but she knew it was over.

Bymaan continued, “I know you may be tempted to rebel, to cause trouble, Jennifer, but you owe it to Sergio to allow him to go home.  Please be sensible.”

The unicorn looked at her and blinked softly.  She knew better than to trust the beast now, but it was hard to stay mad at a unicorn.  She and Sergio mounted the beast, and it leapt into the hole in the ceiling to carry them away.

“Now, Jamie Infante and Park Ji-hyung, stand before me.”

The cops staggered before the queen.  Infante glared bullets at the angelic guard, who kept their distance.  Park put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a deep look of concern.  Don’t fuck this up.  He understood.  Whether or not he could restrain his temper was another matter.

Iphigenia walked beside the queen on the right, Cariamon took up a spot at her left.  Infante found it hard to resist glaring at her, but the Queen commanded his attention.

“Jamie, you have resisted this invasion of your land with courage and honor, and suffered more from the hands of my forces than I would have preferred.  But  you remain our enemy.  I expect no less of you.”

“Don’t call me Jamie.”

“Sergeant Infante,” she nodded respectfully, “you will be allowed to return to your country’s lands - to let them know what happened here.  To let them know that The Septagram is here to stay.  If you return in arms, you will be slain.”

“You can’t do this, devil lady.  America always wins.”

Park said, “Accept my gratitude in lieu of his, please.”

“I do, Ji-hyung.  Take care that you both leave our lands with all haste.”

He nodded eagerly.  Cariamon gestured with his rod for some goat boys to help the men leave.  They showed them to the ropes they’d used to descend, and helped Park get to climbing.  They let Infante do that himself - understandably avoiding arm’s length of the furious nephilim.  As Infante climbed up, he looked back to Iphigenia.  She was looking straight at him.

“Madison, Jason, come before me.”

Jason helped his daughter along.  He looked up at the queen with a slightly bowed head, but Maddy was too weary to make such a show of submission.  Her head lolled on her shoulders.

“Your Majesty,” he said.

“Jason, Madison, you tried to take my subjects from me against their will.  It is strictly forbidden.  But you are not my subjects.  In the spirit of amity between our nations - and because the beauty of your love has impressed me - I will allow you full amnesty for your crimes.  I only ask that if you return to your family, respect their wishes in every way.  If you tarry in The Septagram overlong, expect a visit from my legion.  There will be rules for travel between our nations.”

“Uh, Thank you ma’am.  -ness.  High.  Um.”  He settled for a hasty nod.  Words failed him.  The eerie angel with the bone wings came from her side to help escort the two frail humans away.

“Clark Upton,” Queen Bymaan said, “you sought an audience with me?”

Clark stepped past the goat boys and such, took his place before her.

“I guess I wanted to know the score.  Your army made its little announcement with a big show of force.  How can people make an informed decision about something as big as their national allegiance, with goons goose-stepping door to door?”

“I understand, more than you know.  Have you wondered at the source of your unusual power, Mr. Upton?”

“Eh...”

“You are a long lost cousin to every angel in this room - the descendant of love between the Hosts and of Man.  That gives you a place of pride here.  You helped me to defeat my treacherous lieutenant Abalaam, whether you willed it or not, and I am grateful.  Take your time.  Decide if you will join your brothers and sisters in The Septagram, or keep your allegiance to the Empire of America.”

“Well, alright.  I’ll stick around for a bit, thank you.”  He bowed.

He stepped back while the goat boys stepped forward.  They all fell in around their Queen in worship.  Iphigenia looked at the scene in mild disbelief.  What had she gotten herself into?

Bymaan looked down at her kindly.  “Go to her remains and practice this ritual to the letter.  Do let me know if it doesn’t go right.  It will restore her to life.”  She handed the nephilim a glowing pink page, like the one from her vision, manifested from thin air.

Ippy accepted it with great care, and looked up at her.  “This is your part in bringing her back.  You said I had to do something too?”

“You had this power in you all along.  As an angel, your blood can sustain her for as long as you live.  No need for her to take the life of anyone else.  Isn’t that sweet?”

She nodded.  “Thank you.  Thank you.”

The Queen turned to the goat boys.  “Let your Primus know that your legion is now in her thrall.  She is a Knight of Hell, by my decree.”

“Your Majesty!,” they bleated and hustled to make her will a reality.

***

The demon legionnaires escorted Maddy and Jason out to Broadway and abandoned them there.  People and monsters were still ogling the ruins, helping survivors, or chattering in excitement.  They hobbled the opposite direction of that crush, to the south.

Maddy cried, “Where are we going?”

Jason said, “There might still be somebody working in the Pill Hill hospitals.  If not, maybe we can find a way to patch up your leg there on our own.”

“Oh.  How far is it?”

“All this hipster bullshit down here?  Just past that.  See the taller building back there?  That’s one of ’em.  I don’t remember if it’s Swedish or Virginia Mason.”

“So far...”

“I could throw ya over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Princess.”

“Don’t be mean, Daddy.”

“Hehe, I don’t mean it like that.  But you’re less up for walking than I am.  How about a piggy-back ride?”

“Ugh.”

A dolphin with sexy lady legs walked up to them.  “Heya!  You need a hand?”  She didn’t have hands, but it didn’t come off like a bad joke somehow.

“No thanks,” Jason groaned.  Trusting one of those demons with his baby was the last thing he was going to do.

“I’m sorry,” the dolphin thing said, and it walked away.

“Thank you, Daddy.  I can’t...”

“I can’t either.  Mom and Kevin are nuts.  The world is nuts.”

“Mm-hm.”

They hobbled along mutely, the weirdos of the world washing past them in a carnival blur.  Past the college the hill turned down some, then again past the QFC.  They came to the northern base of Pill Hill - a lump of hospitals, now dominated by black citadels.  The handful of citadels around the hospital district were very tall, but only about the width and depth of a city block, so odds were good a substantial amount of hospital still stood somewhere between them.

There was a short but very steep length of hill at first.  They struggled and Maddy cried a few times, but when they got to the top, it was a fairly straight gentle slope down, with hospitals and clinics along the way.

The foot traffic never stopped, but it was a good sign - it seemed like people were coming to the area for medical attention, implying there was indeed a hospital open.

They reached the emergency room at Virginia Mason, and it was hopping.  The atmosphere wasn’t quite war zone and it wasn’t quite Mos Eisley cantina, but it was bizarre.  The hospital staff were supplemented with Hell’s weirdos, looking like Jim Henson creations in scrubs.  Jason took Maddy to the counter.

“Welcome,” said the lady.  “Where and how are you hurt today?”

Maddy said, “I have a broken ankle, and… probably more.”

“Any bleeding?”

“Not a lot?”

“And you, sir?”

Jason said, “Not much.  Could be worth a look at the ol’ bones, if radiology’s still a thing.”

“It is.  Give me your full names, dates of birth, gender.”

Jason started to pull out his wallet and the lady waved dismissively.  “Put it away.  Nobody’s keeping track of any of this.”

He narrowed his eyes.  “Is Queen Bymaan a pinko?  Is that how this is all going to work now?  Who’s gonna pay for that, when you start to run out of… supplies… and stuff?”

“I don’t have time for this.  Names, dates of birth, gender.”  She put two very simple forms on the counter, near the ballpoint pen that was chained to the counter.  They surely weren’t the hospital standard, more like something hastily composed in Word, printed, and cut into fourths with scissors.

Maddy filled hers out, then Jason.  He looked at the lady expectantly.

“It ain’t that different from usual.  Now you get to go wait.”  She pointed to the lobby.

They went among the random citizens of the Septagram and sat nervously.  There were no magazines to read.  They put their heads together and quietly planned their escape.

***

Amduscias had abdicated a great deal of power in Hell for the opportunity to come to Earth.  He breathed air, flexed his muscles, galloped across the asphalt wherever the nephilim told him to go.  It was an amusing fiction - the idea of being a simple beast of burden, an object of affection for a horse girl.  He’d keep it going until a more interesting diversion presented itself.

He leapt across the cavernous collapse of the interstate highway, landing on the north side with a scramble, then kept on - throwing sparks from his powerful cloven hooves.

The early afternoon sun was golden and warm, but the unicorn was fast enough to put some cooling wind on Jen’s cheeks.  She appreciated it.  Part of her wondered if she should trace the same path as Rosemarie and the others, up Westlake to the north - just in case the legions had proven less honorable and left them as rat-gnawed bones along the way.  But I-5 would be the fastest way out of The Septagram, and she was sick of the place.

The elevated highway was so weak from recent abuse that it wobbled under a thousand pounds of horse-like demon duke and a few hundred pounds of angel-flavored people.  It stabilized more as it turned into a bridge over the Ship Canal out into the U District.

Sergio slapped her side to get her attention and she slowed Amduscias to a canter.  She said, “What’s up, Serge?”  It was still a little hard to hear her over the hoofbeats.

“This is north, huh?”

“Yeah.  Quickest way out of the state, up to Canadia.”

“They will be trouble at the border.”

“We can go off to some quiet spot and hop the fence.  But I do wanna see how Rosie and John are doin’, if I can find ’em.  What do you think?”

“I want to go to Venezuela.  We should go in as legal, wait as much as we have to, so I can be able to go.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry.  I’m really sorry, buddy.”  Her voice became too quiet to hear.

“Jen.”  He circled her waist more fully with his arms and leaned his chin on her shoulder.  It was a bit of a reach - they were a similar height and she wasn’t small in the middle.  “You know we have a different lifes.  I can’t say we will always like each other.  But I would like if you come to Venezuela with me.  As my lover.”  He kissed her ear.  It was flaming hot, bright pink.

She slowed to a trot, turned to get an arm around him and they kissed.  As she broke the awkward embrace, she said, “Maybe.”

Amduscias whickered in amusement and went back up to a canter without prompting.  Some of the trees alongside the highway had become magically overgrown, towering into the sky.  Some weeds had grown up beside them, to become nearly as tall as regular trees.  The scent of blackberries was heavy in the air.  The crows and gulls steered clear of the streets and buildings, where pigeons starlings and sparrows had become larger than hawks.  Some tiny demons rode them like steeds, merrily jousting in the sky.

It was a new world, and they left it behind.

***

Infante and Park had been offered assistance on the way out of the rubble, but Infante insisted on doing things the hard way, and Park didn’t want to let the guy out of his sight.  They finished the climb a half hour later than Maddy and Jason, with their goatish escort.

The men reached a peak in the rubble and surveyed Seattle.  The sky and land were full of weirdos.  Black citadels still remained - three in a tight cluster at the southwest end of the hill, one beyond it on Beacon Hill, one directly downhill from them in Amazon territory, and one out north on the green woolly side of Queen Anne.

Military surveillance craft were soaring high above.  Would one of those drop a nuke before the cops had a chance to escape the region, make good on their exile?  What did Uncle Sam have in store for the occupied territory?

Park said, “I don’t think they’re going to babysit us on the way out.  Might as well go back to Tacoma and pack our bags.”

“This is ate up, sir.  I can’t fucking stand it.”

“We weren’t ready.  Shit happens.  I don’t wanna wait around for it to get worse.  Let’s go, Sergeant.”

Jamie looked at him with a miserable expression mangling his perfect face.  His lower lip was almost comically pouty.

Ji-hyung shed a tear and worked his own lips wordlessly, tried to press the emotions down.  He swallowed a lump and spoke quietly.  The wind threatened to steal the words away completely.  “We got the murder clubs.  Let’s take that win and go.  Please.”

Jamie nodded and hugged him.  “I will.  I won’t cause trouble now.  For you.”

Ji-hyung kissed him.

A bergamot with court jester legs, bird feet for arms, and a lizard head mocked them.  “Oooh, kissy kissy.”

Infante flicked it away with a finger and it tumbled down a dark crevice into nothingness.  They both flinched and froze, unsure if that would bring down the troops.

A minute later, when it did not, they made their way down the mountain of debris.

***

Iphigenia entered the Cherry Hill Citadel with an escort of legionnaires.  She bid them to leave her alone and they did.  The stairs were worse on the way up than coming down - so many flights.  The afternoon light coming through the slot-like windows wasn’t strong enough to fully illuminate the path, but it was strong enough to make the interior lights too weak to see by either.  It was one of those times of day where seeing was situationally worse than in the middle of the night.  She turned on the flashlight in her shirt pocket and it barely helped.

At last, she came to the throne room.  It was still a shambles, covered in corpses, weapons, shell casings, and bird shit.  She swallowed emotion and walked quickly to the place beside the throne, where Jelly Sue had crumbled.  Her shards were sullied with gore from dead angels.  Would the dust be pure enough to bring her back?

Ippy looked at her hands.  She was clean enough now.  The skin at her knuckles was in serious need of lotion.  The dark brown on the back, the lighter color beneath, the thinness, the protruding tendons when she moved her fingers - all normal enough.  But they were the hands that had made Bymaan the Queen of The Septagram - had ensured Lucifer’s continued dominion over a part of the Earth.

She could think of a lot of people who wouldn’t approve of that.  Churchy relatives shook their heads at her from the sides of her mind.  They were easy, however, to brush away.  She took the pink paper out of a pocket.

The page was covered in archaic and arcane bullshit she would not normally understand, but the meaning magically passed from the page into her mind.  She needed to create elaborate symbols around the remains, chant to the demon kings, and focus her will on the task for as long as it would take.

She looked at the broken ceramic at her feet.  If she didn’t go through with the ritual, she’d never experience whatever spell the vampire had her under again.  She’d be free, be whoever she wanted to be.

No, that was not what she wanted at all.  Maybe a spell was part of it, the vampire spirit using the allure of a pretty doll to get at her angelic blood.  But what she felt was real.  Who knew what that pissed off cop was planning at this point?  Might as well make it worthwhile - and fulfill her heart’s true desire.

She found she could make the glowing lines of the symbols by running her hands over the brick tiles of the floor.  It was still hard work, on hands and knees, requiring a focus she used to need medicine to maintain.  She mumbled the words, the meaning in her will more important than the ones in her mouth.

The sun’s rays grew longer as they poured through the room, creeping higher as the sun went lower.  By the time she was done, there was no more daylight at the level of the bricks - just her magic symbols glowing softly in pink.  Her palms were raw, the knees of her pants worn through, her back and thighs cramping.  She avoided the sight of the remains, her focus on the task - on finding her vampire soul and bringing it back.

An angel looked in on her, then turned away, directing a few others to stay back as well.  She needed privacy.

At last, the symbols were complete.  She dragged herself to her feet against the side of an altar, staggered to the center of the circle - to the remains - and made the final invocations.  “To Zimimmar, King of the North, I beseech you.  To Egyn, King if the Northeast, I plead.  To Oriens, King of the East, I cry.  To Amaymaan, King of the South and Lord of Greed, I pray.  To Korsaan, Monarch of the South, I prostrate myself.  To Monarch Pruchlaas of the Southwest, hear me.  To King Gaap of the West, please.  To Queen Bymaan of the Northwest, the powers left to you in Hell, I need them with me.  Kings of the Corners, invest me with dominion over Life and Death, in this moment I pray.”

She felt her sense of her own body jar out of place, like a fever dementing proprioception, but not as severe.  It was a schism between body and soul.  When she moved her arms, the body took a few moments to catch up to her soul.

Iphigenia fell to her knees over the shards and raised her arms above them.  A white glow began there, and her hands moved into it, caught it like a twig passing through flame.  She pushed it down, not sure exactly what she was doing at this point in the ritual.

She knew she’d achieved some kind of altered state, but that it could be lost with a moment’s distraction.  That thought itself was a distraction that sent her flailing.  She waved her arms, trying to grab the magic before it flew away.  Too late.  She was just Ippy again.

She fell to her side and gave up.  Maybe it was hopeless, maybe the Queen could make it work by her own hand.  She squeezed her eyes shut.  Then she felt a disturbing pulsing sensation within her gunshot wound.  The unicorn hadn’t healed everything in her.

A trickle of blood rose there, raced over her skin when it broke the surface tension at the lip of the wound.  It was trapped by her shirt.  Realizing what it could mean, she pulled the shirt down to her elbows and brought the wound closer to the shattered remains.

Ippy bled more.  Where did she get all this blood from?  Was that her real super power?  She was getting light-headed and ill, so there must be a limit.  She let herself blow right past that, vomited a little, and slumped to the floor in paralysis.

Arms burst out of the plaster and gripped the floor.  Iphigenia couldn’t move to see.  The arms pulled themselves up, slow enough for a head and shoulders to assemble from the shards.  Rows of evenly spaces holes broke across the surface of the bald head and black strands squirmed free, snake like.

The blood soaked through the grains of the remaining shards turning them to red mud that sloshed in turmoil.  The color wasn’t far from the dark skin veneer over the hollow ceramic vampire.  She hoisted her hips out of the shards, kept on, as stiff and clumsy as befit a doll brought to life.

Jelly Sue escaped the grave.  She was facedown, and halfway down the steps of the shallow pool that had been evaporated in the battle where she was shattered, a mound of perfect glossy black ringlets burying her head.

They both lay there a while, recovering the power of motion.  Jelly pushed herself up to hands and knees, crawled to her owner.  “Ippy?”

Iphigenia rolled onto her back enough to look at her doll.  “Jelly.  I’m happy to see you.”

“I’m happy to see you, too.”  The doll laid down beside her owner and looked at her with big sparkling eyes, alert but with no trace of the heavy feelings that had brought her back from destruction.  No human soul.

Iphigenia felt good again, felt right.

***

The unicorn had been an issue.  The border guards tried to kill him and Jen and Sergio barely escaped death in a hail of bullets.  Mounties and American creeps, brothers in arms against the supernatural.  Amduscias did get away, to the land of maple syrup and moose.  After that, the only way to free Sergio was to act like riding a demonic creature into Canada was all her idea.

That was it.  Jen spent several months in a Canadian detention center, waiting for the countries to decide what to do with her.  While she waited, she tested her strength in the cell at night.  She wasn’t as powerful, but still much stronger than she had been before the Host came.  She surmised it was her proximity to Hell’s lands.  They had conquered from Olympia to Everett, with a few dozen miles of DMZ all around.

One day, she was finally and inexplicably freed.  They walked her to the gate without a word, cold, like a scene out of an Ed Norton movie.  Then she saw the reason and smiled for the first time in ages.  Rosemarie was there, wearing dark brown sunglasses and a business skirt, leaning on an expensive silver sedan.

She embraced her friend.  “Oh. My. GOD!  How did you do this?”

“Easy, baby.  Easy on me.”  She wheezed a bit beneath the power hug.

Jen smooched her on the cheek and let her go.  “OK, but you gotta tell me.  What the hell is going on?”

“I’m rich now.  You know how it is.  Rich people get what they want.”

Jen pummelled her with soft little jabs.  “C’mooon, what’re you hiding?”

“OK, I have the mark, right?  So after the dust settled, I had dual citizenship in the United States and The Septagram.  That gave me travel rights, where I could get a cool job.  A lot of money for nothing, ya know?”

Jen crinkled her nose.  “What the fuck is happening out here?”

“It’s a whole new world.  I don’t have enough clout to break your exile, but I was able to get some of your stuff out of your apartment, rented you a place in Portland.”

“The Rose City?  No way.”

“The Emerald City is gone, girl.  Portland has better concerts anyway.”

“This stinks.”  She looked around at the mossy, ugly border burg and its cracked concrete.

“Get in, loser.  It’s gonna be a long drive.”

“Alright.  Hey, did my unicorn ever turn up?”

“Oh my god, just stop.”

Rosemarie shoved her friend roughly down into the passenger seat - which would have been impossible if Jen didn’t let it happen.  Then she walked around and got behind the wheel.

“Seattle’s gone.  It’s The Septagram now.  How am I supposed to feel about that?,” Jen asked.

“Same as my Duwamish grandma.  Shit happens.”

Jen nodded grimly, then squeezed her hand.  “I didn’t think anybody would come for me.”

“Everybody loves you, stupid.”

She smiled and cried.  Rosemarie started the car.

***

Jamie looked at Ji-hyung from across the hotel room.  He was brooding again.  He was trying to come off as sexily stoic, but it was a poor act to conceal deep concern or sadness.  What a nuisance.

“You have got to tell me what’s bothering you.”

“Me, bothered?  I’ve got it all right now.”

“Bullshit, sir.  You’ve been having visions again.”

“Again?  No.  They never stopped.”

“Yeah, well, a new one is messing with your head.  You gotta get yourself squared away, dude.”  He wagged a judgmental finger.  It was at odds with the rest of his presentation - stark naked sitting in bed, muscular body and half-ready manhood way too erotic for such displays.

“Don’t trouble yourself, Jamie.  You always carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

“Naw, that’s what they call projection, sir.”

Ji-hyung was wearing a suit shirt and tie, but no pants.  He took off his underwear as he sat on the bed.  “Is it?  When we got here, you were expecting to get a big debrief and then go straight back to war, right?  But nobody wanted a war except you.”

“That’s not true.  I had a couple of senators in my corner.”  They were in Washington DC - had been since their escape from Washington state.

“And how did that work out for you?”  He loosened his tie.

“You think you’re going to distract me?  This is about you.”

He whipped off the tie and pulled open his shirt.  “It’s about me, huh?  You know what that means.”

“Goddamn it.”

Ji-hyung’s gambit work.  He distracted the young guy with sex and love.  They did some dirty stuff, then eased down into passionate kissing and a close embrace.  They left a sheet between them so they wouldn’t get too sticky.

Jamie was half-asleep.  Ji-hyung admired his face and his body, sadly.  He knew what was coming.  In theory, he could stop it.  Make an excuse to rush Jamie out the door, convince him to go somewhere else.  But something in changing the future paralyzed him, filled him with dread - even if the future untouched was dreadful enough as it was to be.

The clock moved around its lazy arc and Ji-hyung breathed in Jamie’s aura, tried to savor every moment.  When the clock struck 3:21, he said, “You might wanna get dressed, Sergeant.  You have visitors.”

“Wh-what?”

“They’re going to knock on the door in two minutes, give you everything you want.”

“This is it.  This is what you’ve been worried about.”

“Get some pants on, Jamie.”  Ji-hyung pulled the sheet over himself and away from Jamie.

“Fuck.”  He got up and threw on a tank top and some khakis.  The door started making noise as he was just finishing the second pant leg.  “COMING.”

He answered the door without letting them in, or letting them have a view of the bed.  “Senator Chilvers.  I’m sorry, you caught me in a messy situation.”

“It’s alright, Sergeant Infante.  I know you know how to handle a mess.  Can you meet with us downstairs in ten minutes?”

“Yeah.  Yes sir.  See you soon.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Infante closed the door and came back.  “What is it, Ji-hyung?  What is everything I want?”

“Another run at The Septagram.  Revenge.  There’s still no political will to send Queen Bymaan back to Hell, but a secret faction has formed in the DoD that wants to run an op.  You’re in.”

“You saw all that in a vision?  Wasn’t just some pheasants and swords you’re misinterpreting?”

“I did.  It wasn’t.”  He pulled the sheet up under his nose and stared sadly at Jamie.

The beautiful guy flexed and sighed.  “What is it?  Am I going to die?”

“I don’t know.  But I know I’m never going to see you again.”

Jamie swallowed a lump.  Ji-hyung was right.

***

Clark and Thurston wore tuxes, like most nights in The Septagram.  Neither had accepted the mark and neither were completely comfortable about the overtly infernal nature of the realm, but it was the place to be - and as artists, that was where they had to ply their trade.  They were in the Denny Regrade Citadel, formerly ruled by Abalaam, hobnobbing with the elite.

The crude edges from its rise to earth had been smoothed and polished.  A painstakingly installed elevator had made the trip to the throne room tolerable.  Electric chandeliers gleamed on the gold leaf rococo accents, new to the room.  Angels and important humans laughed and drank wine.

The men found themselves alone for a moment.  Clark leaned over and kissed Thurston on the cheek.

Thurston raised eyebrows.  “Are we feeling ourselves tonight?”

“Every night.  But what about you?  Still afraid this is like selling your soul?”

He sighed.  “Well, it’s only a little more obvious than kissing rich asses to keep the theatre in donations.  And at least a nascent monarchy has an art budget that isn’t subject to the vagaries of real estate prices.”

“That’s a fact, my friend.  Want to dance?”

“Performing for free?”

“For fun.  Remember fun, Thurston?”

He rolled his pretty dark eyes.  “OK, let’s get this over with...”

He led Clark to the dance floor, knowing full well the old man would end up leading the dance itself.

Queen Bymaan relaxed on the Citadel’s throne.  It was a sculpture styled to look like a great chariot, horse sculptures suspended from the ceiling, like it was trying to fly away.  Pet giantess fetishists clung to her thighs like nerdy dogs and the ambassador from America eyeballed her breasts unsubtly.

“Your Majesty,” he said, “Do not take this to be the official position of the United States government, but I thank God every day that he cast you down where we can behold you.  You are radiant.”

“I’m still not letting you have the nukes back, Chuck.”

“I don’t flatter myself to believe you’d be moved by my flattery.  It’s genuine.”

She smiled.  Earth boys are easy.

Iphigenia was in deep black coattails and a gold lamé sash over slate grey silk clothing and tall shining black boots.  Her hair was cleaned and braided in front, blossoming into a shiny waterfall behind her.  She cracked the fingers of white-gloved hands and sat at the grand piano.  The band died down and dancers slowed, looking for guidance.

Jelly Sue was in a red satin ball gown that was far too long.  She lifted the skirt enough to walk up a step stool, and take a place seated atop the piano.  She looked to Ippy with a placid smile.

“Warm up?,” Ippy asked.  Jelly didn’t need it.  Her voice never cracked, but Ippy thought it was cute.  She raised a little brandy glass and pinged it with a cocktail fork.

Jelly responded, “Mimimimi-miiii...”

“That’s good, Jelly.”

They smiled sweetly at each other.  Then Ippy raised an eyebrow and started to play.  It was a slow, gentle jazz tune - an original, composed with help from a herald demon or two.  She played with some force to establish the rhythm, then lightened her touch on the keys as Jelly Sue started to sing.

Her voice was flawless, high, but strong.

“Some friends you find

 In a dusty mausoleum.

 Some friends you find

 So dirty you can’t see ’em

Who ever wants to be alone?

Make your friends of dolls or bones

When I need a knife to cut you free

That’s when you mean the most to me

I see you in the darkest hour

I see you and I grow in power

You are the blood in my glass

 Some friends you find

 In the tomb and filthy rubble.

 Some friends you find, and

 If you love them, bring a shovel.”

Clark was moved by the romantic melody, and hugged Thurston in the middle of their dance.  Thurston obliged him with a gentle kiss on the forehead, but never lost sight of the creature on the piano.  Her song chilled his blood.

***

The Homme family were comfortable inside a spacious living room with recessed lighting and puffy beige carpet.  Outside, a cold winter wind threatened snow that never seemed to arrive.

Jason relaxed with his feet up on the ottoman, his lovely wife Heather beside him.  Madison was at the far end of the couch in a ball, watching her boyfriend Braden and her brother Freddy playing on the Xbox.  Grown men acting like kids.  Typical.  At least they didn’t cuss at each other anymore.

The phone rang and Heather got up to catch it.  Jason looked down the long couch at Maddy.  “Your beau is duelling your brother to the death.  It’s very Shakespearean, Princess.”

“It’s Smash Brawl, Daddy, not rapiers in Verona.”

Freddy suddenly sat up, letting his character get tossed into a pit.  “It’s Mortal Kombat, Sis!  Are you freaking kidding me?”

Braden said, “That’s teamwork.  Thanks for the help, Hon.”

“No fair!  Ugh.”

Heather came back and sat on the table a little disturbed looking.

“What’s the matter, Mommy?”

“Oh?  Sorry, Baby.  Your Daddy isn’t going to like it.”

“What was it?  The IRS.”

“Your brother.”

He pointed a finger at her.  “That’s right.  I don’t like it.”

“He said he’s got a piece of waterfront on Mercer Island now, wants us to come for a visit.”

“Why the hell would we want to do that?  I’m sorry, Honey.”

“Daddy.”

Heather held both hands up to calm.  “He’s your brother, and you should at least consider it.”

“That ship has sailed, Honey.  Right out to the Puget Sound and smashed on some rocks.  He can be somebody else’s brother.  Some kinda… goat-faced sunuvabitch.”

The younger guys put down the controllers and turned to face the conversation.  Braden said, “Man, waterfront on Mercer Island?  How loaded is old Kevin now anyway?”

Freddy said, “We should go!  It sounds lit, dogg.”

“I’ll show you lit, if you talk that trash in my house, Son.”

“Naw, seriously.  The war is over.  We can go there and back, no problem.  Why are you so worried?”

Maddy said, “You weren’t there, Freddy!  Even if they aren’t fighting, it’s dangerous.  And it’s just wrong!  You don’t go and get the Mark of the Beast.”

Jason said, “She’s right.  And look what they’re doing with it.  People are making all this money.  They say in the Bible you get the mark so you can do commerce, right?  You might as well just sign your soul over in blood.”

Freddy said, “Psh.  I gueeess.”

He tugged his sleeves down a little farther.

      --The End

***

[babylon-bitch]

Just Friends ~Nostalgia And Running (part 61)

Harper White is best friends with Luke Hemmings, they always have been. Not only is she  friends with the rockstar, but with the rest of 5 Seconds Of Summer, as well as a really nice girl named Erika.

Harper has a few secrets, she can play all the instruments the boys play and many more. It’s a talent she has kept hidden, only very few people know.

What will happen to the six teens, wondering around the world together?

***

Calum’s P.O.V.

Watching Harper walk away from me, I sigh shaking my head at how simple the solution is to their pain, and walk the other direction, towards the hotel.

Harper and Luke frustrate me so much, they’re blind to the solution, and by the talk I’ve just had with Harper, it’s clear that she wants Luke as much as Luke wants her, she just can’t admit that.

I get both of their views.

Luke wants to be where they used to be, and almost forget every that has happened. I think that’s what we all want, but we know it’s never gonna be the same again, maybe worse, maybe better, I don’t know, just not the same.

Harper wants to forget everything, but not the same way as Luke, she wants to forget Luke. Which is brutal, but that’s how Harper says she wants it, and the heart wants what the heart wants. Although I don’t think it’s the heart talking.

I could be seeing Harper’s view wrong, and she actually doesn’t want anything to do with Luke at all but it’s kinda hard to believe.

I’m torn between supporting Harper in that she needs to get over this herself or that her solution is Luke and only Luke. But going with her theory that she wants nothing to with Luke, she needs to get away from that. I want to be a good friend and support her, but I’m not sure if this is the right decision for her at this moment in time.

I love them both but this makes me want to hit their heads together until they understand.

Even though they were fucking gross together, kissing and being affectionate all the time, I’d still take it, if that means they’re both happy.

I’ve not experienced what they are going through, so there is a certain extent that I don’t understand it, but from an outsider’s view point, what they’re doing can’t be healthy, physically and mentally. You can tell they have both lost some weight, the bags under their eyes signal that they don’t get much sleep, their minds are on each other all the time, and how can it be healthy to be in your thoughts all the time that it’s like they’re not even in the room.

The two of them are suffering, it’s clear, they’re suffering differently though. Harper’s mental health is off the charts and Luke’s heart is off the charts.

Luke’s stuck with nostalgia, whilst Harper is running.

The amount of times I’ve found Luke going through his camera roll on his phone is uncountable. He always has this small broken smile on his face when he looks through them. We want to take the phone off him because he gradually get more distant every time he does it, but if that’s his only joy nowadays I don’t want to be the one to take that away.

Smiling at the receptionist as I walk through the lobby of the hotel we’re staying at, and wait for the elevator to open.

Stepping in and pressing our floor number, then waiting, pulling my phone out in the process.

“Hey.” I say as I walk into Ashton’s hotel room, where everyone seems to be hanging out.

“Hi.” Luke sighs, going back to his phone.

“Hello.” Ashton waves.

“What took you so long?” Michael asks.

“Yeah you were like 17 hours.” Ashton exaggerates.

“I was like 2 and a bit hours, calm down.” I shake my head, sitting in a tacky armchair. 

“But what took you so long? We thought you’d be like half an hour later than us.” Luke says.

“Well I was talking to my sister longer than expected then I ran into-”

“Wait, let me guess.” Michael cuts me off. “Britney Spears.”

“Uh no.”

“Highly Suspect?” Ashton questions.

“I wish.” I shake my head.

“An old one night stand?” Luke asks.

“Thank fuck not.” I answer. “Why couldn’t you just let me finish?” I ask.

“Because it will probably be someone we don’t know or someone lame.” Michael tell me.

“Okay, rude, and you better not let them hear that, but I ran into Harper.” I confess.

“What?” I grab Luke’s attention instantly.

“She’s in London?” Ashton asks.

“I swear I could’ve heard her voice when we were leaving.” Michael says.

“You probably did because the room she was in was on the way out.” I confirm.

“Is she still here?” Luke questions.

“Right now she is, she’s gonna go see her brother, but I’m not sure if she’s staying overnight.” I shrug, leaning back in the chair.

“But isn’t her bro-”

“Yeah but he’s staying with his girlfriend or something.” I save Luke the time.

“Oh.”

“So how is she?” Ashton asks.

“She’s um, fine.” I nod vaguely.

“Just fine? That’s all you’re gonna say?” Ashton raises an eyebrow.

“She’s the same as what she was when we last saw her.” I shrug.

“So miserable?” Luke asks.

“I wouldn’t say that.” I try to protect his feelings.

“I’m a grown boy, Cal, I can take the truth.” Luke tells me.

“I know, it’s just a touchy subject.”

“Is she happy with her new boyfriend?” Ashton asks.

“Actually no I can’t.” Luke pokes fun at himself and gets up.

“I think you’ll be happy to hear that he’s just a friend and she’s still single.” I stop him.

“Really?” Luke excitedly asks, then coughs. “I mean, really?” He says normally, making us laugh.

“Yeah, really, so stop getting your pants in a twist.” I sigh.

“Is she really going all the way back to Sheffield now?” Michael asks.

“I’m not sure, I told her we were staying here, but she might stay with her brother, I don’t know.” I shrug.

“What was she here for anyway?” Michael asks.

“A meeting I guess.” I say.

“Ugh, I miss hanging out with Harper.” Ashton groans.

“Same, even though she was annoying and shit, I still miss her.” Michael agrees.

“Why don’t you just text her.” Luke bitterly suggests.

“She’ll never reply.” Michael sighs.

“I actually asked her about that and she said it just doesn’t feel right anymore.” I tell them.

“Uh, how am I not supposed to be offended?” Michael jokes.

“Nah, I understand that though.” Ashtons nods.

“Yeah, things are different, times have changed, people change, and I think it’s time to move on and accept that she doesn’t really want anything to do with us anymore.” Michael says.

“Only thing you can do.” I agree.

“Does she still speak to Erika and Maddie?” Ashton asks.

“I imagine she still talks to Erika for work and stuff, I don’t know.” I shrug.

“No I stay correct, I can’t handle this.” Luke shakes his head walking out, slamming the door lightly.

“They’ve gotta sort this shit out, it’s too much, Luke’s storming out almost everyday, he had a mini break down this morning because he thought she’d actually moved on, at this rate every thing is gonna go into decline in his life, and he’s going to be left with nothing.” I state.

“What really happened when you saw her earlier?” Ashton question.

“She was a mess, she was crying when I walked it. She knows that Luke is the solution she just doesn’t want him to be or can’t believe he is. She said she wants to be back where they used to be, but she can’t and she needs to let go of him.” I explain.

“I just want to shake them until they realize that they’re still perfect together.” Ashton laughs.

“I don’t think Harper is ever gonna get back together with Luke, and I don’t fully understand why.” I tell them.

“I mean, Luke did cheat on her and that’s hard to get over because you think was I not enough? Was our whole relationship a lie? Did you actually love me? Your trust in people goes out the window, and we all know when Harper gets along with someone she puts her all into the relationship, so if she gets nothing back and instead shreds of a broken one, that’s gonna be hard for her. Look at when her dad left her, that took 2 years, and during that she was a mess, and now this is Luke, this hardly compares to that.” Michael points out.

“What Luke and Harper had was the real thing and now I don’t believe love exists.” Ashton sadly chuckles.

“I can’t believe Luke and Harper actually broke up.” I admit.

“I don’t think they can either.” Michael says.

“I honestly thought they’d break up for like 6 weeks then get back together again.” Ashton confesses.

“How long has it been since they broke up?” I ask.

“Like 7 or 8 months.” Ashton answers.

“Could you imagine if this was all some big prank.” Michael jokes.

“I wish.” I chuckle.

“How many time have they seen each other since the break up?” Ashton asks.

“The night of the accident, when she woke up, and when Maddie proposed, theres probably some I’m forgetting.” Michael tells us.

“Do you think there are any that we don’t about?” I question.

“Didn’t they see each other when they went over to Maddie’s?” Michael questions.

“Yeah.” I nod.

“And didn’t she say something about them seeing each other the night before? Like she said they had an argument or something and Luke asked Harper if last night ment nothing to her.” Michael tries to remember.

“Oh yeah, she did say that.” Ashton says.

“Do you think they slept together?” Michael asks.

“Ew, I don’t wanna think about that.” I grimace.

“I don’t either, but why would Luke say that? Also that’s another 2 times they saw each other.” Michael adds.

“I don’t know, is there anything we can do to help them back together?” I question.

“Harper doesn’t want anything to do with Luke though.” Ashton points out.

“No, if you have a conversation with her about this all, you can tell she wants nothing more than to just run into his arms, it’s a fact.” I say.

“What’s stopping her?” Michael asks.

“I haven’t really got a clue.”

***

“Luke get up.” I poke his arm.

He groans in response.

“We’ve got interviews and shit like that.” I remind him.

“So?” He questions, rolling over.

“So you need to be there, because you’re kinda in the band.” I poke his back, making him tense and wiggle.

“No shit.” He deadpans.

“Luke, you need to get up, the first interview starts in an hour and a half.” I inform.

“I’ve got loads of time.” He mumbles.

“It takes half an hour to get there, and we all know you take the longest to get ready, on top of that you’ve gotta eat.”

“Can’t you just do it without me? It’s not like I’m gonna say much.” Luke asks.

“No.”

“What’s even the point? It’s going to be the same as always, with the same answers. I’m better off just lying in bed all day.” Luke groans.

“I swear to God Luke, I-”

“You’ll what?” He asks.

“For fucks sake, Luke. You can’t keep feeling sorry for yourself all day, you have to sort yourself out at some point.” I exclaim.

“Yeah well that’s not today.” He sighs, rolling over again, looking at me.

“Will not even a kiss get you up?” I tease.

“Why does that sound familiar?” He questions and I laugh.

“‘Cause Harper said that to you once.” I say.

“Ugh don’t mention her name.” He groans.

“Why? She was part or your past, she still exists, you know.” I tell him.

“Don’t I know it.” He rolls his eyes.

“Just please get up.” I urge.

“Fine.” He huffs and throws the covers off him, and sits at the edge of the bed.

“When I said up, I meant get or of bed and get ready, so we can go.” I tell him.

“I’m getting there.” He waves me off. “You sure, you can’t just do it by yourselves?”

“No.” I shake my head.

“Just say I’m sick or something.”

“Luke this isn’t school.”

“Fine.” He grumbles, getting up, and going to his suitcase. “Um, you can go if you want.” He awkwardly says as I pull out my phone.

“Nah, I want to see what Harper saw.” I smirk making him glare at me.

“You’ve seen me naked before, even before her.” Luke says.

“Shut up.”

“Fine, I’ll get dressed with you in here.”

“Have you done your pubes recently?” I ask whilst laughing.

“I’ve got no need to anymore.” He laughs with me, whilst pulling up his jeans. “Got no one to show it to.”

“Have you been with anyone since, you know, you broke up with her?” I question.

“Uh, no.” He furrows his eyebrows.

“Not even kissed?”

“Maybe when I was drunk but if I did I can’t remember.” He answers.

“Has uhm, she?” Luke asks after some silence.

“I don’t think so, I don’t know, I don’t talk about that stuff when I talk to her.” I shrug. “I think she said that she kissed someone on a night out the other day.”

“What else did she say last night?” Luke asks, putting on a shirt.

“Uh…” I trail off. “We talked about you basically.” I confess and I get silence in return.

“She hates me doesn’t she?” Luke asks after a while.

“Uh no, I wouldn’t say that.” I cautiously speak.

“Well does she still have feelings for me?” He questions.

“It’s not my place to say, you should talk to her.” I tell him.

“She wouldn’t reply to me.” He shakes his head.

“When was the last time you talked to her?” I ask.

“When she left me at the airport.” He sadly states.

“What about texted her?”

“Ages ago, like before the accident even happened.” He answers.

“I gave her your number by the way.” I inform.

“You did?” He raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” I nod.

“Why’d you do that?” He asks as he does his hair.

“In case she wanted to talk to you or something, I don’t know, I think it gives her comfort to know that you’re just a call away.” I shrug.

“Really?” He questions, looking at me.

“She doesn’t hate you Luke, she even told you herself that she’ll always love you, Harper just doesn’t want to be around you right now.” I tell him.

“Do you think she’ll ever want to be around me again?”

“Of the times right and things have changed then she might want to, I don’t know, I didn’t ask her.” I reply.

“Does she miss me?” He questions.

“I guess, you guys were in each other’s lives physically for 18 years, and now they’re gone, you’re gonna miss them. She saw you nearly everyday her whole life, you’re gonna have this connection and she’s bound to miss that. You miss her, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” He nods.

“Then there’s a chance she’ll miss you like you miss her.” I say.

“But she doesn’t want me anymore, I lost her.” He states.

“Yeah you did.” I agree.

“Do you think I have a chance to get back with her?” Luke asks.

“Not anytime soon, she’s not ready for anything like that, I don’t think. Maybe in the future, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. It’s time to move on Luke, it’s been like 8 months, you can’t keep waiting around, just accept she’s gone, she’s the one that got away, and I’m not sure if there’s anything you can do about that.”

“It’s a lot easier said than done.” He shakes his head.

“She can’t understand that you cheated of her and why you’re so upset.” I tell him.

“I didn’t cheat on her because I didn’t love her anymore, there is no reason as to why I did it, I was just fucking stupid and ruined the best thing that ever happened to me.” He shakes his head in disappointment.

“To her, it’s not really about the cheating, sure that hurt like a bitch, but the actual break up is why she’s hurting so much. I know that she hates you for it, but she doesn’t hate you.” I reply.

“I wouldn’t say that.” He bitterly chuckles.

“It’s true, she doesn’t hate you.”

“How come every time we see each other she seems to hate me then.”

“She’s never been in the right headspace when she’s seen you. I don’t know, she doesn’t hate you, I promise.” I reassure.

“When do you think she’ll ever be in the right headspace?” He asks.

“That’s a conversation for another day and when we have more time.”

***

“So any music coming out anytime soon?” The interviewer, George, asks us.

“Maybe after the tour, but not anytime soon.” Ashton answers.

“Then again, we could be lying.” Michael says, putting his hands up.

“Then again.” I chuckle.

“So how has life been since you took this little hiatus?” George questions.

“Oh.” I awkwardly chuckle.

“We went back home for a while, and uh, had to do some stuff back there.” Michael replies.

“What happened? It had to be pretty urgent for you to take 2 months off tour.” He obliviously chuckles.

“We have a friend there and um she got in a serious accident.” Ashton informs.

“Oh, no way, I didn’t know. Is she okay now?”

“Yeah, I guess she’s fine.” Ashton nods.

“Good, so what are you looking forward to the most about being on tour again.” George questions.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the crowd sing with us.” Ashton answers.

“Running around on stage and messing with Luke.” Michael laughs.

“I feel like I’m in primary school again, uh, I’m looking forward to just performing, really.” I shrug.

“Luke.” He urges.

“Uh, I’m looking forward to interacting with fans and traveling.” Luke speaks for the first time.

“So who’s single?” He asks.

“Me.” Ashton raises his hand.

“Me too.” I raise my hand as well.

“Me three.” Michael answers, making me playfully glare at him.

“Me.” Luke sighs.

“You recently got out of a serious relationship, correct.” George asks Luke.

Luke just nods his head and bites his lip in response.

“How’s that been? You glad you’re out of it so you can do what most teenage boys do?” He cockily laughs.

“Um, I wouldn’t say that.” Luke chuckles, playing with the ring on his finger. “Uh, we broke up a little while ago, it’s different, I can say that. She’d been in my life for 18 years, so it’s been hard.”

“Are there any hard feelings? I imagine there is.”

“Not really, we don’t really talk much anymore, but she’s an amazing person and I don’t think I could speak badly of her. She’s was a huge part of my life so it’d be wrong to do so, it wasn’t a particularly bitter break up. She’s helped me through some tough times in the past, and I’ll be forever greatful for that because I couldn’t of done it without her. She’s so important to me, even still, and I miss her, but she’s living her best life and I can’t be mad at that.”

I wouldn’t say best life.

“Are you on good terms now?”

“We don’t talk much, but last time we spoke it was a little rocky, but what break up isn’t? I’ll always think highly of her, so I’d like to think we’re on good terms. We’ve moved on with our lives now, and it’s an end of an era.” Luke bites his lip.

This is what you call moving on?

“Do you still love her?”

“There’s always going to be something for her.”

[goscienceworld]

Drabble 004

Alex secured the ends of his suit jacket with custom cuff links. Tonight was the charity event that he hosted out of the Smithsonian, all the proceeds going to different foundations. Usually he went alone but this time he was going to have Maddie by his side. How the headlines were going to light up tonight and this time it would be with the right female. Alex tugged on his jacket and turned to the side, making sure that his suit was in pristine condition before walking out of the room and down the stairs. “Looking good boss. Sebastian is on his way to go pick up Miss Madeline.” Flynn told him right as his feet came off the bottom step.  “Don’t let her hear you call her that. I need you alive.” He couldn’t help but laugh as he grabbed his watch off the counter and got it situated on his right wrist. He tucked his phone into his inside suit pocket and turned back to look at Flynn. “Tonight is a big night. Millions of dollars flow though this event. A lot of good gets done also.” he smiled at the thought. Even though he wasn’t the safest guy in London, he could at least try to bring some good to it. Flynn raised his hand to object him “I forgot to inform you of the guest list. You aren’t going to like it.” Alex flinched, he already had a bad feeling about the next words about to come out of his mouth. “Amelia is going to be there....” Flynn trailed off. That wasn’t so bad, he could handle that. “With Darren....” Flynn let his sentence taper off. He gritted his teeth and turned back to look at him, rage already glowing in his blue hues. “How did they even get on the list?!” he yelled as he slammed his hands down on the counter in front of him. “Sir. This services charities all over the world. Not just London.” Alex rolled his eyes, fuck Flynn’s logic. “Let’s get this over with.” The two left the house in Alex’s Lexus LS. It didn’t take long for them to reach the convention center that the event was held in. His passenger door was opened and the camera’s went off almost immediately. He waved at the few photographers that were closest to him, turning to see Maddie’s car right behind his. ‘Perfect timing.’ he thought to himself as he waited at the end for her. Once she got out of the car, Alex wrapped her up and smiled down at her, the camera’s going insane. “They aren’t inside. Smile. Breathe. Amelia is here. I love you.” he whispered lowly just to her, looking up and smiling at the cameras.  They made it inside the building, Alex letting out a sigh of relief once inside. No cameras, no reporters, no problems. He pulled Maddie close and gave her a deep kiss before letting her go, walking over to a few different donors. “Welcome gentlemen. Glad you could make it out.” he greeted them, a familiar red head hanging onto one of their arms. Alex refrained from rolling his eyes as he pointing to the different people walking around “Help yourselves.” he said to them before excusing himself. He made his way up to the second floor that was off limits to the rest of the event party, biting the inside of his lip. The man who had gotten away from him in the states was now delivered to him in a nice wrapped up bow and she was with him? Looked like he was getting his two for one special after all. Alex smirked as he patted himself down, feeling his weapon strapped to him and the ammo not far behind. Alex fixed his cuff links and made his way back down to the party. “Darren. Good to see you again. How have you been? Heard some things.” Alex smirked cockily as he wrapped his arm around Darren’s shoulder, pinching the nerve just enough to cause pain but enough for the rest of the party to stay unnoticed. “Let’s say we take a walk.” He said low enough just for him to hear, Amelia trailing right behind the two. Alex led them to the receiving docks on the opposite side of the convention center, slamming Darren into a stack of boxes. Alex felt satisfaction run though his veins as he heard the snaps of some of the bones in Darren’s body. “Wrapped up and hand delivered. Wow, I must have made the nice list this year.” He grinned devilishly as he squat down to his level, reaching out to grab his face with his own hand. Before he could make another move he could hear foot steps behind him. That only meant one thing, Amelia. “Alex no don’t!” she screamed as she ran as fast as her heels would let her run. Alex squeezed Darren’s face and hard as possible before slamming is head into the crates.  “You’re serious right now? You’re the one who called me in the fucking first place!” He yelled at her as loud as he could. Alex’s patience was running thin and he had an event to get back to. He pulled his pistol out of the back of his pants, slamming in the ammo. Amelia looked at him almost shocked and scared for her life. “Scared? you should be. I am pretty over this whole thing.” Alex stated as he reached up his hand and smacked her with the pistol, watching her fall to the floor. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out his phone, shooting one quick text to both Sebastian and Flynn. ‘Clean up crew.’ is all it read. He put the phone back into his pocket and reached out to Amelia, grabbing her hair and pulling her across the floor by it. “You are going to watch me end him, and then I’ll see what to do with you.” Alex told her with pure evil in his voice. He tightened the grip on her hair, screams of horror coming from her mouth. He cocked his gun and pointed it straight at Darren’s chest. “Alex please! Please no!!” he could hear her scream from beside him. Deciding to play along, Alex threw her with force to the ground.  “You had me chase this man all across America. You told me it had something to do with my sister. You put my fucking fiance in danger. Do you understand that? You put her in harms way. For it to be a trap for me? To kill me? Guess what. I’m invincible bitch and you are not.” Alex held his weapon out, taking a shot at her leg. He didn’t want to kill her, he wanted her to suffer a fate worse than death, just like she had done to him all those years ago. He then turned his attention toward Darren who was now sitting there in shock. “I....I didn’t know she wanted you d...dead. She manipulated me!” Darren was now stumbling over his words. Alex was amused. It wouldn’t change his mind but it would definitely make it easier to murder the man. “See, I hate liars. I am a man of my word myself. Maybe you’ll learn a thing or two in your next life.” Alex stated simply as he aimed point blank for his chest, releasing three shots. Sebastian and Flynn immediately ran into the room with a team of men. Alex handed his pistol over for cleaning, replacing it on the spot. The entire receiving floor filled with Amelia’s screams of horror and pleading for Alex to take her too. He turned to her and smiled, looking her dead in the eyes “What was it you told me all those years ago? Oh yeah.....Deal with it. You’ll get over it an move on.” the smile never leaving his face. Alex cleaned himself up and switched his suits. He then turned to Sebastian and Flynn, wipe her memory and as for Darren..well you know the protocol. Alex fixed his cuff link before running up the stairs, quickly integrating back into the party. 

[sorenmarie87]

In The Middle of The Ride (3/?)

Word Count -  2,181

Warnings - Death, Mentions of cancer, first kiss, first attempt at trying to write a funeral.  All grammar mistakes are my own - so if something seems off, please let me know.  Also if you read this and want to see where the story goes, send me an ask and I’ll tag you :)

Tagging - @lovetusk @dragongirl420 @mirajanefairytailmage

Ten minutes later Ryuichi came down dressed in her favorite pair of sporty sweat pants given to her by Cordelia and a light blue long sleeve shirt to match.  Her mom had finally changed from her club clothes and her dad was in the same thing.  Lucy’s house wasn’t a big deal, they usually ate there every other week and vice versa.  The car ride was quiet but they made it there without any mishaps.  Lucy had been sitting outside when they had arrived.

Lucy must have been angry with her parents because she was dressed in all black and wore a shirt both of them had bought that said “Off duty ninja” on the front.  Next to her was Lucas.  He was his usual laid back self, and he was trying in vain to calm down his little sister.

“Hey Luce!” Ryuichi yelled from the car as she got out and watched Lucy race towards her.

“Grandpa is going to rip us a new one when we get in there,” Lucy said somberly.

“That bad huh?” Ryuichi asked hesitantly.

“Yeah I wasn’t in there to hear most of it but he blames our mom’s for being wild children…etcetera.”

“Well let’s face the music shall we?” Ryuichi asked as the three of them walked towards the door.   She could already hear her grandfather scolding the adults.

“Look here,” he said while stomping his foot in frustration,” if you’d punish your children once in awhile instead of taking pity on them, I’m sure they’d behave better than a group of wild animals.”

“Do we really have to go in there?” Lucy asked with her voice raising her voice to a higher octave, one that the younger girl rarely heard.

“Sadly yes we do,” Ryuichi said breathlessly while opening the door.  The dining room had never been changed.  The others had already taken their seats and began eating.  Lucas pointed out the two empty chairs beside him.  Before they moved an inch, both girls looked at each other and then took their seats.  A plate of food was placed in front of each of them.  While they were eating both Ryuichi and Lucy would look over at each other and silently mock their grandfather.

“You know my motto,” their grandfather said then coughed very heavily,” if you spare them punishment, they’ll be spoiled beyond belief.”

“Or if you want to get biblical,” Lucas whispered to Ryuichi and Lucy,” Spare the rod, spoil the child!”

Both girls giggled at what Lucas said but all of the adults gave them dirty looks.  They quietly finished eating and everyone had noticed someone was coughing up a lung.  Ryuichi had noticed the rag their grandfather had been using to cover up his mouth was reddened.  He wasn’t just coughing up phlegm he had been coughing blood.  Her eyes got wide as both Lucas and Lucy gave her a weird look.  She looked at them and mouthed ‘He’s sick…. grandpa’s very sick!’  Before they understood what she was talking about, he had collapsed onto the floor.  His rag fell beside Ryuichi and she picked it up.

“Someone please call a doctor,” Leilani cried out hysterically.

“Dad just called the hospital,” Lucy said while comforting her mother.

After waiting for the ambulance the adults followed and left the three at home.  While waiting for them to return, they cleared the table and did up the dishes.  They separated the jobs up to Ryuichi washed, Lucas dried and Lucy put them up.  A half hour passed, the telephone rang and all three rushed to answer it.

“You may want to sit down for this,” Elizabeth said from the other side of the phone while Ryuichi sat down and missed the chair.

“Mom what’s wrong?” Ryuichi asked sitting down on the chair as the two walked up behind her.

“This is very difficult for me to say,” Elizabeth paused and took a breath,” but Grandpa just passed away."

“How?” Ryuichi asked while finding her voice.

“You have to understand, Grandpa was suffering for a while now.  He had stomach cancer,” She replied while sniffing.

“When do you think the funeral will be?” Ryu asked wiping a tear from her face.

“Not sure but Luke and Leilani want us to stay with them tonight.  So we’ll be home later,” She said one last time before hanging up the phone.  Ryuichi placed the phone back down and glanced around the room.

“What’d your mom say?” Lucy asked as they went into the living room.

“Grandpa died…”Ryuichi sniffled, trying to hold back her tears.  “He was suffering for a while.. "

“Oh…”Lucy and Lucas said in unison.  Lucy walked away but Lucas was looking away from Ryuichi.  They would admit it readily that all three of them loved their grandfather, and his passing away would change everything.  

A couple days after, both Ryuichi and Lucy’s parents were planning the funeral.  Word spread around the high school and Mr. Parker and the rest of the students started a collection for the funeral.  ‘I have to get out of this house, I’m going to go crazy if I’m in here one more minute I swear!’ she thought while pacing in the foyer.  Her eyes darted around to check if her parents were roaming the halls but all four of them were still upstairs.  Ryuichi quickly thought to herself before taking off through the front door.  Lucy didn’t hear anything from downstairs because she had music blaring from her room.

The walk for Ryuichi was long and silent.  For now, she needed a mellow and calming place to think and her cousin’s house was not the greatest place to be with the entire funeral-planning going on.  Ryuichi rubbed her arms as she walked with no clear destination in mind.

Ryuichi kept walking until she felt a twinge of pain that came from her feet.  Her eyes wandered around the park before she noticed a stone bridge just a couple steps away.  She brushed back her hair with both hands and sat on the ledge of the bridge.  Before she stood up on the ledge, a memory of her grandfather flashed into her mind.

“Grandpa what kind of bird is that?” A young version of Ryuichi asked very curiously.

“That’s a crane Ryu,” her grandpa responded while she walked on the bridge.  He gave her a smile before placing her on his shoulders.

“Grandpa…you’re the greatest,” She said as they walked back to her house.   She silently thought to herself.  Ryuichi paced on the ledge of the medium sized bridge.

“Ryuichi don’t do it!” A voice yelled from the side,” Don’t jump!”  She quickly turned around which made her stumble forwards.  Before she fell, a male’s arm quickly pulled her off the bridge before she fell into the water.  Her balance was thrown off, so she had fallen on top of her rescuer.  His crystal blue eyes met her light green eyes and Ryuichi smiled at him.

“You weren’t going to jump were you?” Will asked as they both sat up.

“I don’t think me jumping into a pond would solve anything,” Ryuichi replied while she placed her arms around knees.  She held back her tears as long as she could, but gave up as soon as they trickled down her face.  Will had given her a sympathetic smile and placed his right arm around her shoulders.

“Listen Ryu,” Will started to say as she laid her head on his shoulder,” If you ever need anything, don’t be afraid to ask.  You’re such a great person and I don’t want to see you hurt.”

“At least someone cares,” Ryuichi sighed then glanced down at ground.

“A lot of people do care about you Ms. Ryuichi… may be even someone like me cares about you,”  He was looking straight into Ryuichi’s eyes as they leaned closer together.  She could feel his breathe on her cheek as his lips met hers.  

“Well isn’t this precious!” A female voice called from the other side of the bridge.  The two jumped apart as Lucy moved closer.

“Who’s that?” Will asked with a slight blush on his face.  

“My cousin,” Ryuichi replied while biting her lower lip then shaking her head.

“Kodak moment!” She cried out while tackling the two sitting on the ground.

All three of them chatted until it began sprinkling.  In the same instant, Ryuichi and Lucy stood up then started dancing around the bridge.  Will sat still while watching the two girls in admiration.  ‘Even when she doesn’t try, she still amazes me.’  Both girls continued skipping around the bridge and then watched the sun set.  They said their goodbyes to Will, and Ryuichi smiled to herself.  Will had unknowingly cheered her up and given Ryuichi her first kiss.  

“So that’s Will?” Lucy asked while Ryuichi was dazed.

Ryuichi blushed before answering her cousin,” Yeah that’s Will.”

Lucy pulled the younger girl into a headlock but gave her a noogie instead.  She tried in vain to wiggle out but it was no use.  On the way home, the rain calmed down and a huge rainbow appeared.  Every night since her grandpa had died, Ryuichi kept having flashbacks from when she was younger.

The next morning was difficult for the whole family.  Both Ryuichi and Lucy wore black dress shirts, black peasant skirts and black sandals.  Lucy pulled her hair into two buns and Ryuichi braided her hair and let it sway with the wind.  All the adults were patiently waiting for everyone to get ready.  At the same time the three teenagers came down the stairs.

“Are you guys ready?” Leilani asked with her voice barely audible.

“Yeah,” the three answered in unison.

The ride to the funeral was so quiet.  Ryuichi, Lucas, and Lucy sat in the back seat trying to keep their emotions under control.  Many people had turned out for the funeral.  Ryuichi had noticed Maddie and Cordelia out of the corner of her eye.  Both girls gave her a hug and offered their sympathy.

“The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose. Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit. He guides me along the right path; he is true to his name. If I should walk in the valley of darkness no evil would I fear. You are there with your crook and your staff; With these you give me comfort. You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes. My head you have anointed with oil; my cup is overflowing. Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life. In the Lord's own house shall I dwell forever and ever.”

After the prayer was said many people placed flowers on the gravesite.  Lucas and Lucy sat by the grave and gave their personal goodbyes in Hawaiian.  Ryuichi stood at his grave in silence.  Before tears could start falling, she had noticed something moving in the graveyard.  ‘Either this is one messed up dream or I’m having a very bad morning.’  When the person moved in closer, she recognized him in an instant.

“Thought I’d find you here,” Will said while kneeling down to the grave.  He placed half of the yellow roses on his grave and handed the rest to Ryuichi.

“Thanks for the flowers Will,” Ryuichi said while sniffling.

“It’s no problem,” Will replied,” besides no one should be by themselves, especially if they’re depressed.”

“How-?” She started to asked but stopped.  Will pulled her in for a brief hug.  

“You always go off by yourself whenever something is bugging you.  I had a friend like you when I lived in London.  I haven’t seen her in thirteen years though,” He said while looking at her.

“I used to live in London before we moved,” she added while they walked around the graveyard,” I really miss it.”

“Hey Ryuichi, maybe when your suspension is up…do you think we could spend some time together?”

“I think something can be arranged,” she replied with a slight grin on her face.  Ryuichi held out her hand and Will accepted it.  A weird feeling had overcome Ryuichi and she started worrying.  Her parents had been calling for her but Ryuichi hadn’t been paying attention.

“Ryuichi Anastasia Madison…”She heard her father yell out,” if you don’t hurry up, I will make your punishment twice as long and you’ll never see the light of day again!”

“Sorry to cut this short Will,” Ryuichi said while walking away,” maybe we’ll see each other later.”  When they returned home, Ryuichi sat down on the couch to think.  She could hear her parents discussing something important in the kitchen.

“Jack, are you sure we should send her back?” Her mother asked while pouring a cup of coffee.

“Elizabeth…I’m sure nothing else will happen between those girls,” Jack replied while stifling a yawn.

“Okay, she goes back on Thursday then,” she replied while picking up her cup of coffee,” but Jack, hun you need sleep.”

[pocketfulofpolin]

Protector (9-1-1 fic)

Part One | Part Two | AO3

Chapter Three Miracle

“Are you still not talking to me?”

The seventeen-year-old walked into the room of her seven-year-old brother. There was a small body-shaped mound underneath the blue covers. She rolled her eyes, as she sat down at the edge, letting it dip slightly. She poked at various points on the lump, which issues a few quiet laughs, which the boy attempted to hide.

“So you are alive under there,” Maddie said, as she pulled down the top. Her brother attempted to bring the covers back up, failing as his sister kept her grip. He shot her a glare (as menacing as a child could try to actually send) as she slowly slid up in the bed. His hair stuck up at various angles, which Maddie attempted to smooth down. “You have to talk to me, Evan. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”

“Why do you even care?” Evan asked, pouting and trying not to cry. “You’re gonna leave.”

“It’s just college, Evan. I’m not even leaving for a year!” Maddie replied, moving to sit next to him completely. She wrapped one of her arms around his shoulders. Eventually, he scooted back to snuggle into her side. “I won’t even be leaving you for that long. I plan on staying nearby, so I can visit you every weekend. That’s why I only applied to nearby schools.”

“But what if you don’t wanna come back?”

Maddie ran her fingers through his hair.

“Want to know what I want to write my essay about?” She watched as he nodded. “About how much I adore being your big sister.”

Evan smiled, closing his eyes and leaning into her shoulder. Maddie pressed a kiss into his locks of hair, as she worried whether he would be okay without her there constantly. Without their parent’s attention, she had taken it upon herself to ensure that he was well protected. She knew that she needed to go to college - that she wanted to become a nurse, to help others.

Yet - holding her brother seven years ago for the first time had caused her to realize that he was a miracle.

( - - - )

Miracle.

Buck had been called that by his sister once before. She had explained to him - just before the first night she spent away in dorms - that from the moment she had held him for the first time she had been smitten. He had always wondered what he would feel if he were to hold his own child. He had never expected the fact he would know so soon.

Sitting in the hospital, Buck held his daughter in his arms. He cradled her head gently, his arms lose around her, but also tight enough to keep her safe. He attempted not to release any of the tears which had formed, upon finally being able to cradle the most precious person who had entered his life so suddenly. His attempt failed, just as his attempted has in the past (watching the military official and his daughter reunite at the school concert came to mind).

Buck knew that he needed to leave the hospital soon, to arrange everything he would need once they left. There had been no communication from his so-called work family, which Buck took to mean he truly was no longer considered part of them. It stung, although the silence from his sister was truly the worst part of everything. He refused to reach out, he had made the decision to step up for himself. Even if he knew he needed help, he was stubborn and refused to ask in case they rejected him.

Them.

Buck looked down, examining his daughters’ features. It would no longer just be ‘him’. Eddie had once told him that he had used ‘I’ a lot during his apologies. He vowed that would no longer happen. There was now a new Buckley, who needed him more than anyone else. Buck could not be the version of himself which had arrived in LA all those years ago, looking for nothing more than a warm body pressed against for a night. He was now a father - a title he had long thought would not be possible. He allowed himself a moment to compose himself as he embraced his daughter, silently promising her the world.

( - - - )

There had been a reluctance to leave the hospital.

Buck had spent three days there, refusing to leave his newborn’s side. The medical team had eventually relented after the first twenty-four hours, knowing that Buck could not be moved. Eventually, the combined efforts of two of the nurses (Jem, and one of her older colleagues who had three teenage sons) had forced him from his position next to her crib.

‘You need to go home. Shower. Change.’ Jem had stated, as she had practically shoved him from the room. ‘Alice will be in our care. Besides, I am certain you need to arrange somewhere for her to sleep.’

He had no idea where to start. Buck knew that he would need at least the basics, to see him through until he could figure out his finances, and actually research how to look after a newborn child. He was determined to succeed, in a way he had not felt since he had to complete his recertification a few months before. Returning to his apartment, Buck felt a wave of troubled emotions. There were no signs that anyone had tried to see him, another indication that he had been forgotten by those he cared most about in the world.

Time past by while the firefighter drenched himself in the shower and then walked down the stairs whilst pulling on a clean sweater. There was a duffle bag packed, filled with supplies he would need over the next couple of days. Buck hoped that visiting a couple of local stores that specialized in newborns and toddlers would help him feel less… hopeless. There was still every urge within him to break down to see his team and ask them for assistance. With the situation between them all still so delicate, Buck did not want to add another element that could cause it to break completely.

He needed to show everyone that he could cope without leaning on them. They all had their own lives. Their own families outside of work. For the first time, he felt as though he would now have a purpose from the moment his shift ended. Reaching for his phone, Buck knew there was still one person who could help him through everything. One person who would be on his side, and help him figure out what he needed to do. Although he was resigned to complete this alone, he was also terrified he would make a mistake.

“Hey, Carla… are you free?”

And suddenly, the idea of spending the next four days attempting to arrange things no longer seemed like a daunting task.

( - - - )

Howie ‘Chimney’ Han never believed that he would see the role of acting captain so soon after his first stint. A virus had spread out amongst the families of the 118 fire crew who served under Captain Nash, causing a lot of disturbance over the week. Chimney, Eddie and Hen had remained unscathed at first, arriving for a shift a week prior to being told by the night captain that Bobby and Buck had both called out.

It had started - as always - with a gathering at the Grant/Nash residence. Unknown to the adults of the house, Harry had been feeling unwell for a day or so. Unwilling to tell his mom or step-father, he had kept quiet. Harry had wanted to see Denny and Christopher, the three had a planned video game battle to keep. This meant that it was no surprise when May fell sick, followed by Bobby in the days after.

Maddie had been the next to fall, messaging Chimney soon after he had found out about Bobby and Buck, telling him to stay away from her for the next few days. During the same shift, Hen had been messaged by Karen to say that both she and Denny were having a movie-sick day. Soon after, Eddie had been contacted by Christopher’s school to say the boy needed to be sent home.

Each member of the 118 had been so focused on their respective families or responsibilities, they had not stopped to consider the one enigma within the situation. Buck had not been at the gathering, having told the hosts that he already had other plans. The firehouse was quiet with temporary staff brought in to help the remaining family members who were still standing.

As the week slowly came to a close, the virus subsided, and those affected returned to a state of normality.

Which was, of course, the reason why everything would soon turn.

( - - - )

“Feeling better, Cap?” Hen’s voice caught Bobby’s attention as he walked into the building. He smiled, thankful to be back at work. Chimney followed her, throwing a hand on Bobby’s shoulder as a greeting.

“It’s good to be back,” Bobby replied, “pleased to see the firehouse didn’t burn down during my absence,” he joked as the three walked together.

“Captain Han made a glorious return! Did you have any doubts?” Chim chimed in, with Hen rolling her eyes. A snort came from behind them. Eddie stood there in his civilian clothes, having spent most of the week with his son. “You wound me.”

“How are the kids, Cap?” Eddie asked. “Christopher went back to school today. He’s spent most of the week trying to convince me that ice cream is a healing force. I blame Buck for that, actually.”

Bobby let out a laugh, though his mind flashed to his own children for a moment. He could remember Robert and Brook having the same argument, and usually, they would eventually win. His heart pounded for a moment at the thought of his beloved family, pleased there were fond memories which he could find amongst the darkness.

“Both are back in school today. May spent the week blaming Harry, who tried his luck in spending the week in front of video games.” Bobby replied, recalling the argument between his wife and stepson. “Athena put a stop to that thought.”

Hen chuckled. Athena had been the only member of the house not to suffer. It seemed that even a virus did not want to battle with the unbeatable force that was Athena Grant Nash.

“Has anyone heard from Buck?” Bobby added as he realized the youngest member of the team was nowhere to be seen.

“I thought he would be here,” Eddie said, looking back towards the entrance. It was no secret the two had not been on the same wavelength for a while. He had spent the time looking after Christopher knowing he wanted that to change. Chris had asked for Buck during the last week, and it broke him knowing that he couldn’t just call the other man. He desperately wanted to try and find a way to fix the distance that had been created.

As the group parted ways, Bobby moved into his office. He didn’t want to think about the emails and messages he would have missed during his impromptu leave. The station was full of movement outside his office door. His crew getting ready for the shift ahead as they caught up with each other whilst working. Bobby took a sip of coffee, wincing at the number of emails that had stocked up during his absence.

The subject of one caught his attention. Bobby clicked ‘Buckley - emergency leave granted’ quickly, skimming through the paragraph from the office of the chief. It was then his phone sounded, as she absentmindedly accepted the call. Before he could give a greeting, the voice of his wife echoed around the room.

“Hon, is Buck around?”

Something was wrong. He could hear the concern in her voice, he had heard it several times alone over the past year when it came to the youngest member of the 118.

“No. He’s been out all week, Chim thought he was sick.” Bobby paused for a moment. “I just found a notice that he’s been given emergency leave. Do you need him?”

He heard a sigh.

“I just found out that Ali Martin died in a car accident a week ago.” She said, and Bobby froze. “I thought the name sounded familiar, so I looked into her further. She’s….”

“...Buck’s ex-girlfriend.” The two voices spoke at the same time.

“There’s more,” Athena said. “If my gut is right, that boy is gonna need our support.”

( - - - )

As Bobby and Athena spoke across the city, Buck watched as the pediatrician completed his final checks. The week had been stressful, not knowing when Alice would be deemed suitable to be released into his care. He remained close to her bed, a protective stance which he had perfected, deciding to take no chances when it came to the child he helped to create. He watched as the doctor took a step back, and marked a few things onto the chart.

“Alice is ready to go home.” He stated, sending a bolt of fear through Buck. This had been the outcome he had prayed for - and also the outcome which he had dreaded. As if he was providing a signal of distress, a hand appeared on his shoulder and squeezed gently.

“It’s gonna be fine, Buckeroo,” Carla said, “we’ve got this.”

( - - - )

Athena Grant had a sixth sense when it came to her family. It had always been there, developing since she was a child. The moment she had become a mother, she found that she had nurtured her abilities, which allowed her to focus during both her full-time roles - as a police officer, and (more importantly) as a mother. There had been a feeling within her gut for the past week. Given the fact that her children, her husband, and her ex-husband had all become ill, she had ignored the sensation.

They were all on the mend, but the feeling had not left.

It hadn’t been until she had overheard two officers speaking about the fatal collision a week before she finally understood why. The name sounded familiar to the police sergeant, and the reason had caused her to contact her husband straight away. The fact of the matter was that her husband had entered the marriage with more than memories and love for his first wife and their children. It was a routine joke that Bobby and Buck shared a pseudo father and son based relationship, though both denied this. Athena had seen how distressed Bobby had been upon finding out about the lawsuit.

“Sorry, I got caught in traffic.” Athena stood at the entrance of Buck’s apartment block, as Bobby arrived and the two shared a brief kiss. “Chimney’s spoken to Maddie. She hasn’t heard from Buck all week. She and Hen tried to call him, no answer.”

Bobby was certain he had also seen Eddie with his cell in his hands but hadn’t dwelled on the fact. He had been itching to get the two to work through their issues for almost a month. After Athena’s call, he had spoken to his team straight away. He had not mentioned about Ali, instead, he had asked if anyone had spoken to Buck. When they had discovered no one had thought about him - wrapped up in their own lives for the past week - he had made an excuse and left. He knew that Chimney, Hen, and Eddie would know something was amiss, but he was yet to find out the full extent of what was wrong. Bobby looked at the apartment entrance, and let out a small sigh.

“Are you ready?” Athena said, placing a hand on his arm in comfort. The two wandered in towards the elevators, both praying that they would be welcomed, neither knowing what would await them when they reached the correct floor.  They rode the elevator in comfortable silence, eventually reaching the apartment and knocking.

No response.

The two shared a look of concern.

“Buckeroo?” Athena knocked again, the use of his nickname slipping out in a concerned tone. The silence was obvious. There were no signs of anyone being within the apartment. No sounds of movement, no sounds of music, no sounds of life.

“He moved out.”

The two turned, facing a neighbor who had just exited their own apartment.

“Moved out?” Bobby repeated, disbelief dripping in his tone.

“Saw him a couple of days ago speaking to the landlord. He’s canceled his lease, I don’t know if he plans on returning.”

Athena and Bobby looked back towards the apartment, then at each other. There was only one thought on each of their minds.

Where the hell was Evan Buckley?